Amazon UK advertised a third-party seller with a picture of a white boy wearing a traditional Chinese outfit costumes and making a slant eyed gesture. The action is looked as an insult to ethnic Chinese. The advertisers have been relentlessly criticized by Chinese netizens, forcing Amazon to remove the website on Thursday – however, they have yet to explain or apologize.

The advert for the product – which was called "Chinese boy favorite costumes" – was published on Amazon and eBay's UK website and was from a seller named Atosa and Fyasa. The costumes were priced between 21 to 22 pounds (roughly 30 US dollars). After seeing the picture of a white boy slanting their eyes while wearing the Chinese traditional costumes, a large number of Chinese descents were angry and posted the ad on Facebook and Twitter, requiring Amazon to remove it.

Due to the bad reviews, Amazon immediately removed the costume's page. A spokesman also issued a statement that Amazon has removed the controversial product. However, Amazon did not further explain the reasons for allowing the photos to be published and refused to apologize for the incident. eBay also stated on Tuesday that the product’s website was removed when the incident became a concern to the company, and they have contacted the users to inform them that the relevant page violates the company's “offensive content” policy.

Lily Ladlow posted the racist ad on Facebook on Thursday and demanded Amazon to “explain the thought process” behind it. She expressed that she is “dismayed at this level of marketing” and that Amazon is “encouraging casual racism as a large company.” In another post on Amazon UK’s Facebook page, Lily said, “Please congratulate the marketing team for happily playing into casual racism by displaying racist photos like this.”

Other users have also taken to Amazon UK’s Facebook page to express their disappointment. They said that the ads obviously include the insult that Chinese ethnics are often accused of "squinting". They are also shocked to see Amazon was selling their products with a sense of racial discrimination. They denounced Amazon for using a picture to make an insult to ethnic Chinese acceptable to the public, saying Amazon needs to explain it and make an apology.