The Amazon Debacle

Outsider · Post by **Outsider** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 1:30 pm

Well, I'm hoping that (1) this was an accident and (2) they get this sorted out.

Nonetheless, it highlights the ways that decisions targeting erotic material can be hidden, and can affect other non-erotic material. Amazon's policies removing "adult material" from sales rankings and site-wide searches ended up removing children's books while leaving pornography.

This isn't just about Amazon. Many public places use private internet filters, and many private internet filters block queer sites as "adult," non-party-political sites as "terrorist," and so forth. Even Australia has attempted to impose nationwide internet censorship.

This could prove inconvenient for sites including fetish topics.

petey · Post by **petey** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:28 pm

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6651080.html

According to this story, it was indeed a glitch that de-ranked all those books. Plus, Amazon sells sex toys (bought one from them for my ex-GF, actually) so it doesn't make a ton of sense for them to ban 'erotic' literature on purpose.

As for larger efforts to impose internet restrictions, I agree they're a bad idea.