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#amazonfail

There'll be a lot more about this in The Big Picture on Wednesday, but for now I wanted to give a link roundup to folks who've been covering Amazon's whacked-out metadata issue. Apparently books classified as "adult" - many of which are gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender titles which are not explicit, making it appear that Amazon has an anti-gay bias - are not appearing in search results. In addition to it being a GLBT issue, it's also a women's sexuality issue, as many of the books not appearing are erotica titles aimed at women. Clearly someone at Amazon made a decision not to display "adult" titles, and the criteria for what constitutes "adult" titles is messed up.

Links!

  • This first erupted on Twitter.
  • But it really began with this blog post from Mark Probst.
  • Gawker calls out Amazon for calling this a "glitch".
  • Ron Hogan at Galleycat used to be the GLBT editor at Amazon and offers an interesting perspective.
  • Publishers Weekly gives more or less objective coverage.
  • Foreign Policy offers a great view on activism.
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