Amazon Fail

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Mon, 2009-04-13 09:55

Maysie

Amazon Fail

So this story has been circulating in the blogosphere for the past few days. Amazon, the USian online bookseller that has put many independent bookstores out of business has decided to mark books with positive queer content as "adult" and has therefore stripped such books of their "ranking" as well as their coming up on general searches. The following sites give more detail into what Amazon has been doing, since February apparently, but it looks like a huge push was done this past long weekend while they thought nobody was looking.

Jezebel

Angry Black Woman Amazon=Fail

Mark Probst

First Amazon said it was a new policy to remove all books from their ranking system that contain "adult content", meaning nudity and expressions of sexuality (we assume). But when "Heather Has Two Mommies" is placed on the list to have their ranking removed, and "A Parent's Guide To Preventing Homosexuality" and "The Professional Bachelor Dating Guide: How To Exploit Her Inner Psycho" remain untouched, it's fair to say that a homophobic agenda is going on. Now they're claiming it's a glitch.

What-the-fuck-Ever.

Obviously I've never been a fan of amazon, and the Canadian bricks-and-mortar counterparts Crapters and Indiblow. But this is what happens when corporations take over. Remember Wal-Fart and the morning after pill?

Mon, 2009-04-13 22:03

Maysie

Great minds think alike, here's an article from rabble's front page on the issue.

Quote:

For those just waking up to the scandal, here’s what happened: Amazon has a policy of removing books labeled as “adult” from its sales rankings (which by itself could discourage sales). This, in turn, has a ripple effect of removing books from elsewhere on the site, such as in search results and “related books” listings.

The Amazon system is proprietary, so it’s hard for outsiders to determine the full implications of such a removal. Anecdotal evidence from authors searching for their banned books returned wildly different results at different points over the weekend, but it was clear that if allowed to go unchecked, the “adult” label would have a severe impact on sales -- if the readers can’t find it, the readers can't buy it.

What kinds of books received this “adult” label? Erotica with gay themes (but not heterosexual themes), rape survivor advocacy and rape culture criticism and feminist missives were among those suddenly labelled adult material. Soft-core hetero porn (such as Playboy centerfold calendars), hetero-themed sex toys and anti-gay screeds were left untouched. Let the maelstrom begin.

AmazonFAIL

Fri, 2012-03-02 15:06

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

In an email, <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-amazon-com-to-permanently-ban-the-sale-of-whale-dolphin-and-porpoise-meat">Change.org</a> wrote:
Last week, public outcry forced Amazon.com to pull over one hundred whale and dolphin meat products from its Japanese site. Consumers were outraged that the world's largest online retailer supported the killing of whales and dolphins -- and Amazon.com listened.

But now, Amazon.com is refusing to put a permanent ban in place to protect these animals in the future.

Melissa Sehgal, an Amazon.com customer, is in Taiji, Japan -- the site of an annual dolphin hunt that was exposed in the documentary The Cove. Every day she is witnessing how dolphins are captured and killed, and she wants Amazon.com to help stop it. That's why Melissa started a petition calling on Amazon to never again sell meat from dolphins and whales.

Click here to sign Melissa's petition asking Amazon.com to permanently ban whale, dolphin, and porpoise meat from its sites.

Tens of thousands of dolphins, whales and porpoises are captured and killed for their meat every year in Japan. The method by which they are killed is gruesome. "Rods are hammered into (dolphins') spinal cords to paralyze them," Melissa says. "And then they are dragged by their tails to the butcher house."

Thu, 2012-04-05 12:13

Catchfire

The Seattle Times, hometown paper of Amazon.com, just finished a four-part series on the bookseller giant. It's not kind.

Part 1: Amazon a virtual no-show in hometown philanthropy
Part 2: Amazon.com trying to wring deep discounts from publishers
Part 3: States fight back against Amazon.com's tax deals
Part 4: Amazon warehouse jobs push workers to physical limit