Amazon Defends Decision to Sell Guide for Pedophiles

There is not much we can add to what’s being said all over the ’Net about Amazon’s stand on their decision to sell the Kindle version of The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct by Philip R. Greaves II. It is a can of worms -- a damn ugly one -- that we’ve seen best covered in a relatively even piece on MSNBC:

Amazon issued a statement that will no doubt fuel the outraged comments multiplying on the “Pedophile’s Guide” Amazon page. “Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable,” it reads. “Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.”

Oddly enough for a company taking a public stance against censorship, dozens of one-star Amazon reviews disappeared from the site earlier today:

In an unexplained turn of events, more than 103 customer reviews populated the “Pedophile’s Guide” page earlier today, when news first broke about the book’s availability, but dropped down to less than 30 by late afternoon. The number of reviews has since grown to over 60.

Meanwhile on Twitter, the #amazonfail hashtag has been brought out of mothballs while thousands of users tweet in favor of a boycott of the online bookstore until the e-book is no longer available through them.

The MSNBC piece is here. Digital Trends covers the story here. While Bloomberg pipes up here.