Amazon.com "glitch" targets gay content

[Larry Dixon]

Now, if you type in "Mercedes Lackey" in Amazon's "search all departments," it excludes the Vanyel books Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, and Magic's Price.

Magic's Price won a Lambda Award, and the entire series was an ALA pick for Best Young Adult fantasy.

Just a glitch, right?

Yeaaaahhhhh.

Here's a link about it:

http://io9.com/5209403/amazoncom-banishes-queer-sf-writers-to-a-null-dimension

"Also removed were science books like Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Biological Diversity. Curiously, David Gerrold's orgiastic The Man Who Folded Himself was unaffected, but his chaste book The Martian Child was erased. Similarly, Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren seemed unaffected, but most editions of The Einstein Intersection were."

....

[Christopher Cross Is God]

Is "Mein Kampf" still available?

[Charles RB]

I was grimly amused that Amazon.co.uk hadn't changed the rankings. So it's only the US it thinks needs to have this done.

I'd be insulted by this if I was a Yank.

[TCJohnson]

Larry,

What ever it was, it has been reversed.

I just did a search for Mercedes Lackey and Magic's Pawn was on page 3 of the search (well, there are a lot of books!)

It has four and a half stars with 217 reviews.

Whatever happened, it has been reversed.

[Larry Dixon]

Odds are highest that it was just a blackhat using a script to automate the complaint system. I mean, it isn't like Amazon is going to suddenly turn into an anti-gay organization over Easter weekend.

Still, the vulnerability in their system is pretty major. It's amazing that it took this to even expose the vulnerability, and it makes me wonder: how long were things being gamed before this? It's hardly new for publishers or creators to bump their ratings by using systems; one multi-Hugo winner pointed out that it costs him less than $5000 to wine and dine the right people. One Hugo was even won by a creator simply buying enough voting memberships.

So this is very likely only "I hatez da fagz, w00t I iz Haxxx0rz!" foolishness. Several blackhats are already claiming responsibility.

[TCJohnson]

Really? I just assumed that Amazon had a policy about gay books that generated a lot of bad publicity and reversed it.

[Charles RB]

Really? I just assumed that Amazon had a policy about gay books that generated a lot of bad publicity and reversed it.

They did say they were taking adult material off the rankings when this started to happen (with adult books, porn, and dildos not coming off) so that's certainly how I saw everyone taking it.