Politics

Amazon's PR Disaster

By Anne Landman

Amazon.com bungled handling a public relations crisis after it briefly sold a controversial, self-published electronic book in its Kindle store titled, The Pedophiles Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-lover's Code of Conduct. The book, essentially a guide for pedophiles, drew massive media attention and a barrage of public scorn. At first, Amazon defended the author's free speech rights and issued a statement saying it doesn't condone censorship:

Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable. 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.

Soon after, though, Amazon yielded to complaints and threats of a boycott and pulled the book entirely. Amazon's content guidelines for authors, including prohibitions on pornography or offensive material, could have prevented the e-book from being listed on its site to begin with, but the company's confused handling of the situation left it facing even more controversy, including questions about its commitment to quality control and whether the company did, in fact, infringe on the author's free speech rights.

Full post as published by PR Watch on November 12, 2010 (boomark / email).