E-commerce giant Amazon reportedly deleted a book about Vice President (VP) Kamala Harris from its platform, citing "cover issues."
The book in question was titled "Kamala Harris & The Future of America," written by journalist and political commentator Caleb Maupin in 2020. The book faced repeated rejections from Amazon despite multiple efforts to comply with the retail giant's guidelines.
Initially, Amazon informed Maupin that the book's cover was "not correct." The first iteration of the book's cover had a picture of the Democratic VP, prompting him to alter the design. The second iteration had a minimalist design that featured the book's title. Despite this change, Amazon continued to deny Maupin's requests to list the book on its platform.
This sparked debates over censorship and freedom of speech, as Amazon ostensibly used the "cover issues" as an excuse to ban the book. According to a product description, the book "goes over the life story and political background of a woman [Maupin] considers to be the most dangerous potential U.S. president in history." The incensed journalist took to social media to express his frustration.
"Amazon's censorship is alarming," Maupin wrote. "First, they claimed the cover was an issue. I complied with a generic text-only cover, yet they still refuse to sell my book."
According to YourNews, the book "had been available on Amazon for four years before its removal" – with the latter coinciding with the "coronation" of Harris as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. The outlet added that "the decision to delete the book has fueled discussions about the extent of control that major tech companies exert over published content."
"Critics argue that Amazon’s actions represent a broader trend of censorship, particularly targeting content that challenges mainstream political figures. The removal of Maupin's book has drawn comparisons to similar actions taken by other tech giants, such as Google’s alleged censorship practices."
Your wish is our command: Amazon quick to censor books when Democrats order it
"The controversy surrounding the book's removal highlights the ongoing tension between content creators and platform policies. Many see this as a case of corporate overreach, where powerful companies can unilaterally decide what content is accessible to the public," YourNews continued.
"Amazon has not provided a detailed explanation for its continued refusal to allow the book's sale, leaving many questions unanswered. The incident underscores the challenges faced by authors and publishers in navigating the opaque and often inconsistent policies of online retail platforms."
But Maupin isn't the first victim of Amazon's censorship and he definitely won't be the last. Early this year, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) revealed that the White House – under the Biden administration – ordered the banning of "books that expressed views the White House did not approve of." Most of the books, which were critical of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) injections, were censored at the behest of former White House Senior Advisor to the COVID-19 Response Andy Slavitt, who stepped down from the role in June 2021.
"[Slavitt] fired off an email demanding to know who he and who his White House colleagues could talk to at the company about 'the high levels of propaganda, mis- and disinformation [on] Amazon,'" the congressman said. He added that to weed out books it considered "propaganda and misinformation," the White House reportedly "ran keyword searchers for controversial topics, such as 'vaccine.'" It emailed Amazon when it didn't like how the search results appeared. (Related: ORWELLIAN: Amazon CENSORED books critical of COVID-19 injection at Biden admin's behest.)
According to Jordan, Amazon was initially apprehensive of the "manual intervention" to censor books. He continued: "Why? Not out of any commitment to free speech – but because doing so would be 'too visible' to the American public, and likely to spur criticism from conservative media."
"That's right; Amazon caved to the pressure from the Biden White House to censor speech," the congressman said. These censorship efforts include enabling the "do not promote" option for books critical of COVID-19 vaccines and considering other ways "to reduce the visibility" of certain books that the Biden White House disliked.
Watch Glenn Beck discussing the Biden administration's move to have Amazon ban books critical of COVID-19 vaccines below.
This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
Biden ordered Amazon to hide books criticizing vaccines during COVID "pandemic."
Amazon reinstates book critical of mask-wearing policies following author's "censorship" comments.
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