Amazon drops paedophile guide
Amazon has been forced into a u-turn over publication of a controversial self-published electronic book, The Paedophile’s Guide to Love & Pleasure: A Child-Lover’s Code of Conduct.
The e-book had been on sale for two weeks alongside conventional titles but only came to widespread attention when social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter joined the fray.
Initially the online bookstore had defended its decision to sell the title on grounds of free speech, but within 24 hours was forced into an abrupt volte-face as customers vented their fury.
This proved particularly embarrassing for Diaper.com, a baby-supplies company recently acquired by Amazon which was forced to publicly disassociate itself from the decision.
Philip Greaves, author of the how-to guide, defended it on CNN saying: “True paedophiles love children and would never hurt them.”
It followed a statement from Amazon which read “Amazon.com believes it is censorship not to sell certain titles because we believe their message is objectionable.”
Inevitably the hullabaloo has done nothing to harm sales, the dubious title shot up Kindle’s sales rankings from a lowly 58,221 to 96.