TRUMP Cartoon Restored After CBLDF Campaign

Redbubble has reinstated Nick Anderson's "The Trump Cult" satirical political cartoon to its website after the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) mounted a campaign to protest their decision to remove the cartoon after complaints from the Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.

A representative from Redbubble tells Newsarama that the political cartoon was removed in "error."

"Redbubble's proactive monitoring takes into consideration available guidance from rights holders on how to detect their property in the content uploaded to our marketplace, and sometimes, despite our efforts to avoid it, art that falls under fair use guidelines mistakenly gets caught in the net," the representatie told Newsarama. "This is why we always encourage our artist community to file counter-notices when they think we've gotten something wrong. Sometimes we have!"

Anderson said he filed a counter-notice, but Redbubble didn't reverse course until the CBLDF became involved.

"It was only after the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund intervened on my behalf  – and the letter written by CBLDF started getting viral attention on social media – that Redbubble reversed their decision," Anderson said (via CBLDF). "In the end, I recognize that Redbubble did the right thing. But it must be pointed out; the President of the United States is a hypocrite who complains about the 'violation' of his free speech on Twitter, then tries to actively suppress the free speech of others. These are actions of an adolescent, wannabe-authoritarian."

CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein added, "We’re pleased that Redbubble has done the right thing in this case. We hope that they will continue to assert the First Amendment rights they and their sellers are guaranteed by rejecting any similar censorship attempts."