Posted on 03/18/2018 9:05:14 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
Amazon frightened many conservative authors this week in a mass deletion of reviews. Some authors lost almost 100 reviews on their published works. Others lost all the reviews they had ever written on Amazon. Some lost both.
Information about the purge began to trickle out in the closed Conservative Libertarian Fiction Alliance (CLFA) Facebook group. Member after member began reporting the losses at the same time. Marina Fontaine, whose credits include the dystopian Chasing Freedom, the pro-Trump fiction anthology MAGA 2020, and moderating the CLFA page, reported many members experiencing losses. A coordinated effort was launched to contact Amazon for explanation. Jon Del Arroz, a science fiction author who was banned from Worldcon earlier this year, contacted Amazon directly asking for his reviews to be reinstated. Amazon responded:
At this time, we've reviewed your feedback and ensured that appropriate action is taken. There may be times that reviews must be removed from the site. Unfortunately, we won't be able to discuss the specifics about why the reviews were removed as we'll only be able to discuss that with the individuals who posted the reviews. They're welcome to contact us if they'd like additional information. Del Arroz's reviews were reinstated but the corporate response is less than satisfying to conservatives who know their freedom of speech is under constant attack from SJWs in a big tech industry that rules the socials and platforms writers need to connect with their audience.
"I asked several independent authors about the review losses when it occurred," Del Arroz told PJM. "My left-wing author contacts said they didn't lose any reviews, but the right-wing authors who are members of a group called the Conservative Libertarian Fiction Alliance all lost an incredible amount of reviews," continued Del Arroz. "One author said he lost seventy-seven on his books, which is devastating. I believe the CLFA was targeted by an extreme alt-left troll mob running an email harassment campaign to Amazon who were enabled by a rogue Amazon employee."
Del Arroz is no stranger to targeted email campaigns run by far-left activists who have managed to get him banned from Worldcon and excluded from joining the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Amazon refuses to put an end to speculation that conservatives are being targeted, saying only, "There won't be any additional insight or action we can offer on the matter."
"I hate that absolutism, with no way of finding out what happened," said a conservative author who chose to remain anonymous for fear of more reprisals. "I lost all my reviews with no explanation and then they were reinstated after I complained." Some are questioning if it was a test run for more censorship to come.
"This does happen from time to time," said Fontaine. "But this is too much of a coincidence." CLFA members feel targeted by Amazon. Declan Finn, author of several series, including a popular Catholic spy thriller, reported big losses. "Yes, I did lose reviews, both those on my novels and those on books I've published. I went from 315 to 238 in the blink of an eye," he told PJM. "As of now, the reviews have only come back up to 269. While I generally try not to be paranoid about political targeting, it's awfully suspicious that CLFA members lost reviews from their novels, or had all of their reviews purged from their profiles."
"In order to get a bigger sample (and perhaps find a single non-conservative who has had this problem)," said Finn, "I've posted a few calls on my blog for people to tell me if they've had it happen to them. I'm still waiting. While the reviews I've posted have been restored after a conversation with Amazon, I was never told why they were deleted in the first place."
Finn agrees with Del Arroz on the rogue employee theory. "Amazon has had employees go rogue before. The publisher Castalia House had one of their books temporarily pulled because an employee went rogue, so it's happened before." Castalia House is the home of much-maligned editor Vox Day, who is not shy about his strong anti-SJW activism and efforts to publish more conservative entertainment in every genre.
The conservative outlets silenced by far-left actors in big tech companies are far too numerous to mention. The crackdown on conservative content has been felt on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook and now it looks like Amazon is getting in on the fun.
At least one libertarian author, Anna Erishkigal, filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission because she feels Amazon violated the customer relationship by removing her reviews (not once but three times) on confirmed purchases she made. "I give up… boycott boycott boycott," she said. "I'm not going to buy products from them if they think so little of me, they block my reviews of what I just bought as fraudulent."
Amazon might do well to remember that its authors are also its customers.
PJM reached out to Amazon for comment but got no response.
Exactly.. And even if they don’t take everyone’s guns.. The technology they have at their fingertips is beyond our imagination .. Beyond our ability to defend ourselves against.
After our generation of baby boomers is gone there will be no one left with the will to fight back.
“””””We have to decide what is more important.. Convienence or principle.””””
I stick with principle. How can people come on here and bash liberals everyday and then order stuff from Amazon which supports the worst one?
Amazon refuses to put an end to speculation that conservatives are being targeted, saying only, “There won’t be any additional insight or action we can offer on the matter.”
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A total B.S. answer. Database logs will show who deleted what and when.
Sometimes it is more difficult to battle them at the marketplace than it is to battle them at the ballot box.
All of us are guilty of it whether we know it or not.. It’s impossible to know the political leanings of every person/business you buy from.
Amazoid, like Gargoyle, is intrinsically evil.
Somewhat true. I don’t know the political leanings of Menards.
But EVERYONE knows Bezos is a complete liberal piece of schiff yet they actively support him.
Why would a conservative give him money which is used against us?
I hear ya.. With Amazon we know they are rotten to the core.
Buy from your local independent bookstore.
Anyone bitching about this is a moron and a hypocrite - A business absolutely has the right to proceed however they wish as long as it’s in accordance with the law and anyone whining can’t call themselves any sort of a conservative.
Spend a little more at the closest small bookstore, even if they are a bit lefty and even if it takes a bit longer, you’re still keeping your money in your community.
If I had a bookstore and someone wanted to post a favorable review about an Islam positive book, I’d tell them to get stuffed.
It’s amazing how quickly supposed ‘conservatives’ turn into whining retarded crybabies when a private enterprise acts in accordance with the whims of its owners.
Conservatives make up half of the population, yet where are they? Why do Leftists dominate almost Everything.. I don’t get it..
Any citizen who, since mid-20th Century, has scoured libraries and public sources for original works of the founding period has found such works to be scarce in school and local libraries.
The reason for such scarcity of these books and documents must be attributed to a concerted effort on the part of that elitist group of academics and their followers who wished to "Progress" America away from its foundations in the ideas of liberty, as contained in the writings and speeches of its Founders and Framers of its Constitution.
Sometimes, to disguise their intent, somewhat innocent local persons were influenced by the same elitist officials who took America's school textbook content away from a focus on the ideas of liberty and toward a "Progressive" view of its noble history of freedom and opportunity for individuals. The new focus became "identity politics," rather than the "miracle of 1776" which changed the world.
I subscribed to the Alt Right “National Review” magazine online but could never gain access to post comments (which I had done previously). Apparently the National Review wanted my money but wouldn’t let me comment. They said it was a technical error on my part with passwords but it was not.
Well said.
ping
Even the youngest baby boomers have little or no memory of The American Dream. There are a few factors that will be irreversible:
Cash will be gone sooner than we expect. Anyone who has been on a cruise ship and thinks about how a cashless society leads to a total loss of privacy must notice its negative impacts.
Debt is slavery. The end of there being students and parents who recognized that college loans, home equity loans, mortgages on McMansions, car loans that go too long to ever be paid off lead to a life that a person will never control.
GWB started the insane "temporary" near-zero interests on savings, supposedly to pay off debt. Instead, the feds spent like drunken sailors (apologies to drunken sailors) and put the US hopelessly in debt. Without interest on safe savings that allow one to prepare for retirement, senior citizens will be total victims. I was hoping President Trump would provide for interest on FDIC insured CD savings, but he hasn't done much about that or ending the Federal Reserve and its bogus money.
My vision is of a nation that's already through and globalism that collapses in its own arrogance. Pockets of civilization will survive, but it won't be pretty.
JMHO
Delete Amazon
Yup. It’s got some good reviews too. ;)
https://www.amazon.com/Reasons-Vote-Democrats-Comprehensive-Guide/dp/1501180126
And yet, we have thousands of Amazon supporters right here on free republic. A few dollars in savings is more important to some people than doing the right thing for the country by avoiding commerce with left wing hate businesses. Jeff Bezos is hate.
There are hundreds of alternatives. Walmart ranks near the top with customer service #1. I quit Amazon 2 years ago based solely on principles. Sometimes doing the right thing may have a price.
We’ve disagreed on a few things, but I’m with you 100% on this. See, we are in fact allies against the left.
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