The age of corporate ideological censorship has begun.
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RT @Forbes
Amazon Responds To Republican Sens. On Book Ban, Says Won’t Sell Books That Frame LGBTQ+ Identities As Mental Illness https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/03/12/amazon-responds-to-republican-sens-on-book-ban-says-wont-sell-books-that-frame-lgbtq-identities-as-mental-illness/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie
https://twitter.com/Forbes/status/1370364095510294533
To clarify:
- The idea that being LGBTQ+ is a mental illness is idiotic & not helpful to society.
- But that someone who has this opinion is prevented from stating it publicly is deeply concerning.
- Especially when a private corp decides the bounds of discourse.
2. More importantly, they're disincentivizing the production of anything that might be seen as controversial b/c publishers have to fear losing a major revenue stream. As A. decides this at will, there is no certainty re this. So better safe than sorry.
This leads to political correctness and self-censorship.
This form of censorship is particularly insidious because it is invisible - we don't see books banned that never get written.
My country places some limits on free speech (e.g. you can't deny the holocaust or openly incite violence). But these are coded in law and enforced by the state, i.e. they follow the usual democratic process. This doesn't.
One last thing: by doing this, you're proving every right-wing nuthead right who claims their opinion is being oppressed, this is not a free country anymore yada yada yada. Let's not. Let's not give them that power.
- Amazon is not just "a private company, they can do whatever they want". They have too much market power for that. ("with great power...")
- Due to their market power, banning books has two implications:
1. They're making these books less visible & harder to get today.