EBay Inc. will ban the sale of Confederate flags from its online marketplace, saying the image has become a symbol of divisiveness and racism.
The online marketplace joins Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in banning the flag and items with Confederate imagery following the killing of nine black members of a Charleston, South Carolina, church last week.
"We continually monitor the approximately 800 million items on our site, and evaluate our policies to ensure they are consistent with our core purpose," Johnna Hoff, a spokeswoman for San Jose, California-based EBay, said in a statement Tuesday. "This decision is consistent with our long-standing policy that prohibits items that promote or glorify hatred, violence and racial intolerance."
Confederate flags and other merchandise bearing the flag were easy to find on the Internet marketplace, with some merchants recently selling as many as 30 flags a day, according to sales data on the website.
