Again, I’ve heard nothing from Amazon regarding the decision to remove my book. Perhaps it’s a religious liberty or compelled speech concern. But I doubt it.
Well, I’m glad I got my hardcover copy when it came out. At any rate, I, like everyone else, can only guess at Amazon’s motivations for removing Anderson’s book until they deign to address the outcry, if they ever do. However, I do have extensive contacts within the Amazon ecosystem as part of my job, and after sniffing around, I found it interesting to be informed that one bookseller received an email two weeks ago regarding a different book:
Title: Better Off Without ‘Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession
This product is not allowed for sale on AmazonWhy is this happening?
We took this action because this product is not permitted for sale on Amazon.com. It is your obligation to make sure the products you offer comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and Amazon’s policies.
Put it this way: no one I know has received any similar emails informing them that, say, Mein Kampf is no longer permitted for sale. (Order within the next four hours and you can have your copy on Thursday, in fact.) I’ve heard of plenty of copyright takedowns, and I’ve heard of authors refusing to allow their books to be sold under tendentious intellectual property claims, but this is the first I’ve heard of “problematic” books simply not being permitted to be sold under what appear to be ideological motivations. Maybe Amazon will finally offer up some justification, or blame some rogue algorithm, but this sort of thing is worrying.
P.S. “Hate speech.” Of course. Nothing to worry about here, just the retailer which controls over 80% of the book trade apparently allowing a panel of social-justice undergrads to determine what is or isn’t offensive content.