Here’s a copy of the full letter Amazon sent to Sens. Marco Rubio from Florida, Josh Hawley from Missouri, Mike Braun from Indiana and Mike Lee from Utah.
Dear Senators Rubio, Hawley, Braun and Lee,
Thank you for your letter dated February 24, 2021.
As a bookseller, we provide our customers with access to a variety of viewpoints, including books that some customers may find objectionable. Amazon is working hard to ensure that customers have a great shopping experience and access to the widest and most diverse cross-section of retail written and spoken word.
Much of that diversity stems from the creation of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), which allows independent authors and publishers to publish and sell their work from all perspectives and thus reach new audiences. With KDP, the power of publishing is accessible to authors and clients around the world, enabling a more robust and diverse set of voices to share stories with a wider audience than ever before. In fact, hundreds of thousands of authors around the world have self-published with KDP. In 2020, thousands of independent authors made $ 50,000 or more in royalties through KDP, with more than 1,000 authors making more than $ 100,000 in royalties. With Prime Reading, Prime members have access to thousands of books and magazines at no extra cost. Customers can also subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, which gives them access to over a million titles, including thousands of audiobooks and current magazines. Audible is the world’s leading creator and provider of premium audio stories, with a catalog of more than 600,000 Audible Originals, audiobooks, podcasts and other audio programs. Audible creates original content in addition to distributing third-party content that enriches the lives of millions of listeners every day.
That said, we reserve the right not to sell certain content. All retailers make decisions about which selection to offer, just like us.
As for your specific question about When Harry became Sally, we have chosen not to sell books that view LGBTQ + identity as a mental illness.
The answers to your questions are as follows:
1. Has Amazon had any discussions before in 2018? When Harry became Sally was first published in relation to the content because it pertained to your community standards? If so, please provide documentation explaining why the book was allowed on the platform at the time.
Yes. We carefully consider the content we make available in our stores and regularly review our approach. As described above, we have chosen not to sell books that consider LGBTQ + identity as a mental illness.
2. What was the motivational factor behind Amazon’s decision to remove access to this book after it had been on the market for more than three years?
See above.
3. Is this action part of a wider campaign against conservative material and votes on Amazon’s platforms?
No. We offer clients across the political spectrum a wide variety of content with differing opinions.
4. Did the book violate Amazon policy? If so, provide documentation regarding the policy, which passages Amazon identified as “objectionable content,” and the step-by-step process by which the decision was made to remove the book.
We are reviewing both our Book Content Guidelines and our approach to regularly curating Amazon’s bookstore, which can sometimes result in the removal of books that were previously on our shelves. In this case, we chose not to sell books that consider LGBTQ + identity as a mental illness.
5. Has the policy changed between 2018 and now? If so, provide documentation that led to the change and how publishers and sellers were notified of the change.
Yes.
When we decide to stop selling a book, we remove it from our store and email the author, publisher, or selling partner to notify them of the removal.
6. Was the author or publisher of the book forewarned of the book’s removal from Amazon’s platforms? Have they provided a reason for the move or some form of recourse?
The publisher of Mr. Anderson distributes content through a distributor, who offers the book for sale. Amazon notified the distributor via email of the book’s removal for violation of our content guidelines on the day the book was withdrawn from sale. The email contained a link to our content guidelines and provided a way to contact us if there are any questions.
7. Amazon Web Services hosts numerous websites related to religious, politically conservative, classically liberal and other content that is beyond the reach of acceptable wake groupthink. Are these sites at risk of being banned by Amazon? How does determining which site to host compare to which books to remove from Amazon platforms?
No, AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect our customers’ right to choose what content they allow. We simply require our customers to comply with our terms of service, which are designed to prevent the encouragement and incitement to violence that could harm people. AWS operates as a separate company from Amazon’s retail organizations, and AWS’s terms of service and customer sign-up process are separate and independent from Amazon’s bookstore.
My staff and I are available at any time to answer any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Brian Huseman
Vice President, Public Policy
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