More AmazonFAIL
As we get further into monday, AmazonFail is reaching epic proportions. Having spent 14 hours wading through twitter and the bologosphere, I guess I can call myself somewhat of an authority on the situation. While I sincerely doubt anyone of my Flist doesn't know what's going on, I'm posting yet another link-dump/commentary on the situation, because some new articles have surfaced which I think everyone needs to read.
My first post on the subject, which has the original whistle-blowing posts is here. A later link-dump is here.
Onto the new stuff:
As of this morning, Amazon is seemingly still blaming a computer glitch for the entire deal. However, with evidence of "glitches" going back to february and a response from Amazon citing 'policy', it's pretty clear that the entire thing is a lot more than a glitch. Check the list of stripped books and judge for yourself.
Because we're now out of holiday weekend territory, the tweets and blog post are flying faster than I can realistically keep up with, but I'm doing my best, and I've dug up some interesting links this morning.
Because the AP posted a story last night, Amazonfail is now making news at several big publications, including The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, PC World and The Wall Street Journal. These articles are basic rundowns of what anyone following knew yesterday by 2pm.
Now that this has been going for more than 24 hours, a few of the earlier blogs to jump on this have been doing their research and have come up with some pretty interesting things on what the "glitch" was looking for (Wordpress) and What this "glitch" says about pop culture (AfterElton).
While I'm hoping that this will make it to tonight's pundit shows, (Comedy Central, at the very least), and Amazon is scrambling to cover their own ass, this may actually be a lot smaller than we, the ones who are in the thick of it, think. I find that particularly outrageous. Yes, Twitter is on fire with #amazonfail, but is the rest of the internet? I'm hoping that more major media/newspaper institutions pick up the story.
So why does this matter? Lots of reasons. Even if you're a perfectly straight man (or woman) who has absolutely no interest in erotica/GLBT material, this effects you. The danger is in the precedent. Amazon has fucked with their rating system in order to, in short, hide books. They're claiming that they've done it in deference to their entire customer base.
According to Amazon's conditions of use, "Amazon does sell products for children, but it sells them to adults, who can purchase with a credit card or other permitted payment method. If you are under 18, you may use Amazon.com only with involvement of a parent or guardian." (emphasis mine)
The question becomes, then, why is a website that explicitly states is sells only to adults manipulating the search results and reclassifying what is deemed "adult"? It can't be a roundabout way to "protect the children" because according to their own terminology, they only do business with people over the age of 18.
If Amazon is manipulating the search results, it can be read as an attempt to control what you buy. All the products that have been de-listed are still available for purchase through Amazon.com, but they aren't easily searchable. And that's the key. It's the internet equivalent of a backroom. You go there when you know what you want, but aren't there to browse. By doing this, they're killing sales they may have made from browsers, and maybe even those deliberately looking for something, but who don't know it's been consigned to the "backroom". A quick search for "homosexuality" brings up a slew of anti-gay, right-wing propaganda books. Searching "gay" or "lesbian" brings up DVDs rather than books, (a good chunk of the things on the top are sexually explicit, confirming the stereotype that for gays and lesbians, it's all about sex.
If this is a "protect the children" deal, there are other solutions to the roughshod and ham-handed "policy" that was implemented last week. Create a filter for parents to use so that the parents are responsible for what their children are seeing. This can be applied to a much wider arena, but I won't go into that now.
If you're tweeting about this, keep going. If you're blogging about this, keep going. This story needs to go into a much wider arena than it is right now.
If you find more relevant links, leave them in the comments.
EDIT 1: Amazon.com stock prices are going down; HuffPo has a short Op-Ed piece about Amazonfail
EDIT 2: NPR has picked up the story. Amazon stock is down $1.66; Ten Ways Consumers are protesting Amazon
EDIT 3: NeedCoffee on the situation; In a dose of irony, Amazon.co.uk is having a sale on GLBT TV/DVDs
My first post on the subject, which has the original whistle-blowing posts is here. A later link-dump is here.
Onto the new stuff:
As of this morning, Amazon is seemingly still blaming a computer glitch for the entire deal. However, with evidence of "glitches" going back to february and a response from Amazon citing 'policy', it's pretty clear that the entire thing is a lot more than a glitch. Check the list of stripped books and judge for yourself.
Because we're now out of holiday weekend territory, the tweets and blog post are flying faster than I can realistically keep up with, but I'm doing my best, and I've dug up some interesting links this morning.
Because the AP posted a story last night, Amazonfail is now making news at several big publications, including The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, PC World and The Wall Street Journal. These articles are basic rundowns of what anyone following knew yesterday by 2pm.
Now that this has been going for more than 24 hours, a few of the earlier blogs to jump on this have been doing their research and have come up with some pretty interesting things on what the "glitch" was looking for (Wordpress) and What this "glitch" says about pop culture (AfterElton).
While I'm hoping that this will make it to tonight's pundit shows, (Comedy Central, at the very least), and Amazon is scrambling to cover their own ass, this may actually be a lot smaller than we, the ones who are in the thick of it, think. I find that particularly outrageous. Yes, Twitter is on fire with #amazonfail, but is the rest of the internet? I'm hoping that more major media/newspaper institutions pick up the story.
So why does this matter? Lots of reasons. Even if you're a perfectly straight man (or woman) who has absolutely no interest in erotica/GLBT material, this effects you. The danger is in the precedent. Amazon has fucked with their rating system in order to, in short, hide books. They're claiming that they've done it in deference to their entire customer base.
According to Amazon's conditions of use, "Amazon does sell products for children, but it sells them to adults, who can purchase with a credit card or other permitted payment method. If you are under 18, you may use Amazon.com only with involvement of a parent or guardian." (emphasis mine)
The question becomes, then, why is a website that explicitly states is sells only to adults manipulating the search results and reclassifying what is deemed "adult"? It can't be a roundabout way to "protect the children" because according to their own terminology, they only do business with people over the age of 18.
If Amazon is manipulating the search results, it can be read as an attempt to control what you buy. All the products that have been de-listed are still available for purchase through Amazon.com, but they aren't easily searchable. And that's the key. It's the internet equivalent of a backroom. You go there when you know what you want, but aren't there to browse. By doing this, they're killing sales they may have made from browsers, and maybe even those deliberately looking for something, but who don't know it's been consigned to the "backroom". A quick search for "homosexuality" brings up a slew of anti-gay, right-wing propaganda books. Searching "gay" or "lesbian" brings up DVDs rather than books, (a good chunk of the things on the top are sexually explicit, confirming the stereotype that for gays and lesbians, it's all about sex.
If this is a "protect the children" deal, there are other solutions to the roughshod and ham-handed "policy" that was implemented last week. Create a filter for parents to use so that the parents are responsible for what their children are seeing. This can be applied to a much wider arena, but I won't go into that now.
If you're tweeting about this, keep going. If you're blogging about this, keep going. This story needs to go into a much wider arena than it is right now.
If you find more relevant links, leave them in the comments.
EDIT 1: Amazon.com stock prices are going down; HuffPo has a short Op-Ed piece about Amazonfail
EDIT 2: NPR has picked up the story. Amazon stock is down $1.66; Ten Ways Consumers are protesting Amazon
EDIT 3: NeedCoffee on the situation; In a dose of irony, Amazon.co.uk is having a sale on GLBT TV/DVDs