4 ms·
This is not censorship, books are still legal to buy in the US. It is one (biggest) merchant refusing to sell these books. They are putting people's safety ahea
by amerkhalid 8y ago
This is not censorship, books are still legal to buy in the US. It is one (biggest) merchant refusing to sell these books. They are putting people's safety ahead of their profit margins too. Perhaps they fear lawsuits arising from selling these book. But it is their choice, and right choice.
- intopieces 8y agoYep, the publisher can set up their own little shop and sell through on a website. The right to free speech is not the right to rent someone else’s megaphone.
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoHmm, up to a point, but Amazon own the biggest marketplace; Facebook own the biggest forum; etc.. They have unique positions, with far greater powers than single governments. I don't think arguments such as yours work for supranational organisations. It's like saying people have the right to protest, but then saying they're not allowed to use a vehicle to get to a protest, in theory you're not interfering but in practice you prevent exercise of their rights.
- intopieces 8y agoIn the U.S., false statements of fact are not protected under the First Amendment. [0] [0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_statements_of_fact https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_statements_of_fact So, even if you consider Amazon liable for the protection of free speech (I don’t), this doesn’t really qualify.
- ameister14 8y agoThis is definitely censorship, it just isn't censorship by the government.
- Mikhail_Edoshin 8y agoThe action of Amazon is censorship. That the book is available from other venues is irrelevant. E.g. in Soviet Union certain banned books were distributed outside of official channels (shipped from abroad or re-typed on typewriters); they were thus somewhat available, but would you say they were not censored out in general?