This won’t end well… Amazon unranks LGBT, “adult” books

According to this livejournal entry by Mark R. Probst, over the weekend Amazon removed a large number of gay/lesbian oriented books from its best selling list and search results.  An Amazon representative’s response seems to indicate that the online retailer now considers all LGBT books to be “adult”, regardless of actual content.  Many erotica titles, both straight and gay, have also become unranked and nearly unsearchable.  And the purge isn’t limited to prose fiction… various commentators note that yaoi manga, and even non-fiction books dealing with gays in the military, could no longer be found on the site.

You can read more reactions at Erastes, Dear Author, Meta Writer, Booksquare, GGY Meta, Comics212, Okazu, Queers United, Tectonic Uplift, and Naughty and Spice.  (Thanks to Tina Anderson for providing many of those links.)

The story has also been picked up in mainstream press: Seattle Post Intellegencer, Denver Internet Examiner.  Expect a lot more ink on this come Monday.

Pretty much all of the commentary I’ve seen so far codemns this move, and there’s no need for me to revisit those arguments… why it’s wrong ought to be obvious to most.  But I do wish to make these two observations: Amazon’s justification for censoring the results is silly, because they could easily offer the ability to exclude erotica, or LGBT books (or any subject, for that matter), from search results as an end-user option.  Also, the timing of this change, which took place between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, is rather mortifying… it’s almost as if they are intentionally sending a message, an act which I’m sure many people of faith also find provocative and tactless on Amazon’s part.

But beyond this attack on a particular group of readers, this story evokes an issue facing the greater creative/content community and consumers… from all appearances, we (as in commercial interests) are moving towards closed platforms for legal online distribution.  Content providers support the iPod and iPhone because they afford some level of protection against piracy, and provide easy and secure transactions, while users feel they can trust the Apple brand.  Amazon’s Kindle is attractive to publishers for these same reasons.  But this comes at a price… just as Apple decides which songs or apps they’d allow in their stores, just as the console manufacturers won’t certify Adult Only games on their systems, Amazon will essentially become an all powerful gatekeeper of an entire medium.  If this is the kind of behavior from them we can expect on the Kindle, and it becomes the standard platform for ebooks, then there’s no security for publishers of alternative material.  Publishers small and large need to consider the ramification of this very carefully, and speak up about this now.

Edit: The LA Times weighs in, and Yaoi 911 finds gay comics no longer show up via search either.  Net Effect discusses online activism, and points out that LGBT books may very well see a boost in sales because of this.