Amazon 'adult' book fail: Internal error or Internet troll?

[Nazreen]

Amazon got blasted by gay rights groups this weekend after gay and lesbian book titles were delisted from its site. Was it an internal glitch, as Amazon claims, or is an Internet troll with a vendetta responsible?

The person claiming responsibility for delisting these gay and lesbian books is a Live Journal blogger with the alias of "weev". But some bloggers said that they tested out Weev's concept below and it doesn't work. Maybe Weev is just claiming responsibility to gain popularity. Who knows?


Weev said he figured out that he could easily get the books removed from search rankings by reporting them as inappropriate through a link at the bottom of the book page. He also claims he wrote code to identify all the gay and lesbian metadata-tagged books on Amazon and grab their IDs. He then hired people outside the U.S. to register new accounts en masse to help push the books out of the system, he said.

Read the full article (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10218626-83.html).

[Fergal]

I don't know if Weev did it or not, but he's certainly got his 15 minutes of fame. This stunt will be a nice traffic booster for his Live Journal blog.

I wouldn't believe for one second that Amazon deliberately removed the books.

[Nazreen]

Well, Amazon already claimed that the alleged hack by "weev" is not what really happened.


But a hacker who goes by the handle Weev claims he used automated scripts and some developing-world labor to exploit Amazon's reputation system, claiming he did it just to cause outrage. Those claims look increasingly unlikely, and Amazon is saying it is solely responsible for the changes.

I guess this is all Amazon's fault then. Amazon's attempt to label or classify books as "adult" in nature, went bad and delisted all these gay and lesbian books.

Read more - Amazon Says It, Not Hacker, Responsible for The Great Amazon Gay Book Debacle. (http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/04/hacker-claims-c.html)

[flashgordonweb]

Amazon for some time has had a policy of delisting any "adult" related items (books, DVDs, sex toys - yes they sell them, etc.) from their general listings. They only show up if one does a specific search under that items category. It has been around for some time, but I think people just started to find out about it.

[scifi]

Books are source of knowledge & as different people have different needs & taste , they provide them with required information & details.. so whether it is an adult book or any other general book, I see no point in delisting them from site(Amazon)..It will only deprived amazon of special niche traffic that these books have attracted to their site,,,People tend to find whatever they are looking for from one or other source,,till now it used to be amazon..now it will be some one else...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!In fact it had created opportunity for one more such business---Site dealing with adult books...& other sort of weird matters..:D

[Fergal]

Scifi, I don't believe Amazon has stopped selling the books, it's just that they are not promoted as much in their general classifications and web pages.

[Nazreen]

I agree Fergal but when Amazon delisted them, these books won't show up anymore on the list when people search for them. This will affect the sales of these books so I think it would have been almost the same as stopping selling these books.