Retail giant Amazon is being asked by Republican Senators in the USA why a book about transgender issues has been removed.
The group wrote to Jeff Bezos to ask why a book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment by conservative scholar Ryan T. Anderson was removed from the Amazon website along with the Kindle and Audible platforms. said
Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Mike Braun of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri said Amazon were “unable to provide a sufficient explanation” as to how the book “supposedly violated a vague, undefined ‘offensive content’ standard.”
The company explained in a statement in February 2021 that it has always reserved the right to not sell content based on its content guidelines.
“All retailers make decisions about what selection they choose to offer and we do not take selection decisions lightly,”Amazon said in a statement.
The senators’ letter wrote that Amazon’s decision “openly signaled to conservative Americans that their views are not welcome on its platforms.”
They asked the company to provide documentation explaining its decision, including whether the book violated an Amazon policy.
Under the category “Offensive Content,” Amazon’s content guidelines reads: “We don’t sell certain content including content that we determine is hate speech, promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation of children, contains pornography, glorifies rape or pedophilia, advocates terrorism, or other material we deem inappropriate or offensive.”
“It’s hard to understand,” said the author of When Harry Became Sally, “As far as I know I haven’t done anything. The book has been saying the same thing for three years.”
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