PUBLIC: Fuck this noise...
smu posted this over on sf_drama. I am reposting it here for ease of viewing.
http://community.livejournal.com/sf_drama/2115822.html
"Amazon.com has recently decided to derank and remove from searches all books they deem to be "adult". The problem with that is that the only books they seem to be removing are gay and lesbian, no matter what level of sex they have in them. They're even deranking books about rape, feminism and lesbian pregnancies, as well as works of literature like Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain. Despite this, many heterosexual and "vanilla" works have remained ranked and listed, like works by Laurell K Hamilton and bodice ripper romance novels.
As you can imagine, places like twitter have burst into flames at the speed of which this is going around. The hashtag #amazonfail is full of people discovering their books or their favorite books have been taken from the sales rankings and removed from searches. Neil Gaiman even expressed anger at Amazon for this, on his twitter.
meta_writer is compiling a list of books people find that have been censored, and the vast majority are gay and lesbian books, even TEXTBOOKS and self help books that have a homosexual focus, and are clearly NOT erotic. The list can be found here and is updating frequently.
Amazon released a statement saying "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."."
It's "funny" how their definition of "adult" seems to be LGBT.
The Smart Bitches are also pretty pissed about this, and have suggested Google Bombing Amazon Rank.
Please spread the word (and outrage) on this.
http://community.livejournal.com/sf_drama/2115822.html
"Amazon.com has recently decided to derank and remove from searches all books they deem to be "adult". The problem with that is that the only books they seem to be removing are gay and lesbian, no matter what level of sex they have in them. They're even deranking books about rape, feminism and lesbian pregnancies, as well as works of literature like Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain. Despite this, many heterosexual and "vanilla" works have remained ranked and listed, like works by Laurell K Hamilton and bodice ripper romance novels.
As you can imagine, places like twitter have burst into flames at the speed of which this is going around. The hashtag #amazonfail is full of people discovering their books or their favorite books have been taken from the sales rankings and removed from searches. Neil Gaiman even expressed anger at Amazon for this, on his twitter.
meta_writer is compiling a list of books people find that have been censored, and the vast majority are gay and lesbian books, even TEXTBOOKS and self help books that have a homosexual focus, and are clearly NOT erotic. The list can be found here and is updating frequently.
Amazon released a statement saying "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."."
It's "funny" how their definition of "adult" seems to be LGBT.
The Smart Bitches are also pretty pissed about this, and have suggested Google Bombing Amazon Rank.
Please spread the word (and outrage) on this.