Having already eviscerated both the ebook and audiobook markets, Amazon is now going to sabotage its own print book sales:
Conservatives are sounding the alarm about an updated Amazon policy that bans books the ubiquitous billion-dollar company deems offensive or includes so-called “hate speech.”
Amazon has ramped up its censorship on conservative views in recent weeks. For example, a popular documentary on U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was banned from their streaming service this past week. Before that move, the company deplatformed conservative Ryan Anderson’s book critical of gender theory, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement.”
When Just the News reached out to Amazon over the ban on Anderson’s book, the outlet said the company directed them to a page outlining their “Content Guidelines for Books.” Under a section labeled “Offensive Content,” Amazon states that they “don’t sell certain content including content that we determine is hate speech, promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation of children, contains pornography, glorifies rape or pedophilia, advocates terrorism, or other material we deem inappropriate or offensive.”
“A review of those policies suggests that sometime in the last few months Amazon made a major change to the ways in which it moderates book content on its servers, imposing a much stricter standard on books than it had previously done,” the report said. It appears the company recently added so-called “hate speech” to their guidelines on book platforming, and is amping up their censorship of the “offensive.”
Castalia has already removed most of its audiobooks from Audible. We're well set up to not only survive, but thrive upon the convergence and decline of Amazon, so don't worry about us. If you must worry, worry about all the independents who have staked their careers and livelihoods upon Amazon.
And if you're not using the Arkhaven and Castalia Direct stores yet, you really should be.
https://voxday.blogspot.com/2021/02/amazon-is-locking-down.html
