Amazon’s ABC…
…Amazingly Bigoted Company?
Easter Sunday, while people ate chocolate bunnies and hunted for Easter eggs, books with gay, lesbian and feminist themes quietly lost their sales ratings on Amazon.com — causing the books to disappear from search results and related books listings making it difficult for a customer to find the book on the site which would result in the loss of sales of such books.
Once again the LGBT community is being marginalized. This move effectively renders some titles invisible. What’s left in place is an infuriating double standard. Books featuring incredible violence and heterosexual sex remain in place, while “Brokeback Mountain” and Ellen Degeneres’ autobiography have disappeared.
I like the “Explicit content warning” on Amazon’s pages, but it should be a consistent practice, not used as a tool to appease a minority anti-GLBT customer base.
As Lamba Literary Award-winning novelist Nicola Griffith put it:
I am tired of being the low-hanging fruit that cretins pluck when they need to pander to Moral America. This time, I hope some people choke on their soft fruit.
Now authors, readers and activists have risen up across the internet to protest Amazon’s censorship.
Amazon’s response to charges of discrimination:
In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.
If you think Amazon is using a double standard and you’d like to take action, Contact Amazon directly here:
Amazon.com Customer Service
PO Box 81226
Seattle, WA 98108-1226
206-266-1000
Toll free: 1-800-201-7575
Fax: 206-266-2335
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