An online store has been forced to stop selling t-shirts printed with the slogan 'It's okay to white' after the public slammed the item as 'inherently racist'.
Trade Me had been selling the shirts manufactured by VJM Publishing who marketed the item as a way to troll 'anti-white bigots' and 'local communists'.
The New Zealand auction website previously said they would continue to sell the shirts despite backlash because they didn't breach rules.
But after being inundated with complaints, the online shop took down the listing on Thursday night.
The phrase 'it's okay to be white' has been adopted by white supremacists across the globe.
VJM Publishing's listing read: 'An ''It's okay to be white'' T-shirt will let people know that you are not a racist who thinks that a child can be born into sin if others with the same skin colour have acted badly in the past.
'Wear this shirt as a white person to troll your local Communists, or wear this shirt as a brown person to troll stuck-up middle-class urbanites. Either way it's funny!'
Trade Me initially told Newshub they allowed the listing 'to remain on its site as they do not breach its rules'.
The company's head of trust and safety George Hiotakis said 'items which marginalise individuals or promote one race at the cost of another cannot be sold'.
'While we know there is some debate about this slogan, we don't think these items cross that line.'
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Mr Hiotakis confirmed that the t-shirts were removed on Thursday evening.
'When we were first alerted to these items, we err on the side of letting legal listings run but we listen to our community and we will change our mind if we feel there's a good reason to do so,' he said.
'We knew there was some ambiguity associated with this phrase so it's been a tough one for us to wrestle with. The listings have proven to be pretty divisive and have attracted a bunch of complaints.
'New Zealand has told us that they don't want to see this sort of thing on Trade Me and we agree, so this slogan will not be allowed to be sold on any item on our site.'
The white t-shirts are now being sold by another online store, Allgoods.co.nz.
The new listing says: 'The infamous 'It's Okay To Be White' t-shirts that caused problems on TradeMe!'
'Resist the Orwellian thought police with this t-shirt! The Human Rights Commission thinks that we shouldn't be allowed to sell these shirts - help up stand up for free speech by telling them where to stick it!
'It is in no way racist, hateful or divisive to say that it's okay to be white!'
The listing says delivery may take up to three weeks 'due to unprecedented demand'.
An Allgoodz.co.nz spokesman said the company will 'remove obviously offensive, racist or illegal content in real time'.
'In the case of this particular product, the moderation team did not find it to be obviously offensive or racist upon original review,' the spokesman said.
'There is clearly a line somewhere between free-speech and offensive content.
'To us, removing content because some people interpret it in an offensive way is a slippery slope which stifles public debate and gives us as a platform more power than we believe is right.
'We do not feel that we have the authority, or right, to decide what people can or cannot say, outside of obviously inappropriate content.'
This article has been adapted from its original source.
