In a virtual firestorm of activity, Amazon has found itself embroiled in an enormous hoo-haa over its decision to stock a self-published eBook that is, effectively, a users guide to Pedophilia.
Entitled ‘The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure’ by Phillip R Greaves II, the sale of the book has led to a massive, almost instant, back-lash against Amazon.
Initially bumping along with sales in the single digits, it was Amazon’s statement on its decision to sell the book:
“Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable. Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.”
along with stories on leading blogs such as TechCrunch (one more than one occasion) that quickly led to the book not only reaching the top 100 best-selling eBooks, but the story exploding beyond the Internets and onto mainstream media (step forward Anderson Cooper and Dr. Phil to name but two). Unsurprisingly, the public were ‘outraged’ and calls for boycotting/suing Amazon were loud and clear (backed by the inevitable ‘Boycott Amazon’ Facebook page of course).
Did I mention this all happened in the space of a day?
It’s definitely not been a good 24 hours for Amazon!
I’m going to leave the whys and wherefores of the book itself aside for the moment – enough has been said on both sides (yes, some people are arguing it should have been allowed to be sold, in the interests of ‘free speech’) – but let’s have a look at what Amazon really should have done here, from a basic business perspective.
Very simply – one thing: they should have acted to immediately take the book down.
- not because they disagreed with the content
- not because I, or anyone else told them to
- not because they don’t have other content that people might find offensive available for sale
- not because they want to get into ‘censorship’ or the ending of ‘free speech’
- not even necessarily because the book didn’t comply with their T&Cs (although I’m guessing it didn’t)
No, they should have taken it off immediately they smelt any form of trouble because unlike what’s happening now, almost nobody would have noticed and almost nobody would have cared (apart from the author one would presume). Amazon could have quite legitimately stated that the book was ‘under review’ or some such. They should have taken it down immediately because – commercially – that was the smart thing to do.
The story, were it to get out, would then have been ‘Amazon finds book aimed at teaching pedophilia breaks T&Cs’. Parents would have been happy, nobody would be ‘outraged’ (except for that author again) and even if they were it’s unlikely too many people would want to stand up on national TV to say they supported Amazon’s inalienable rights to sell such material.
Amazon chose not to do that though. Instead, they decided to forgo commercial instinct in favour of principles (or at least the principles of whoever issued that statement) and whilst you could, on one level, salute that as admirable the reality is that this was a really dumb move!
For the sake of the business they should have closed the issue down as soon as possible. Social media is such a powerful force now that events such as this, with a subject that is guaranteed to get even non-Daily Mail readers in a spin, have to be handled quickly and decisively. By sticking to their guns and continuing to publish, Amazon’s pedophilia story is a hot news topic, trending Twitter topic, 6-o’clock news item, blog subject, Facebook hate group and who knows how many cancelled orders, closed accounts and lingering ill-feeling.
The book has now been pulled from sale, and Amazon will get over this of course. The memory will fade and people will continue to use their service. But, for the sake of a sensible decision, Amazon have found themselves embroiled in a major sh!t-storm when they could have had people patting them on the back and commending their values.
Food for thought for all of us in this hyper-paced, hyper-connected world we operate in don’t you think?
One more thing: for all the criticism of their tight policies, compare this to how Apple would probably have responded and how much (read, how little) coverage Apple really gets when it pulls apps and content it’s not happy with…..
I attended a ‘future predictions’ breakfast by one of the large analyst firms recently.
