here's the thing.

[phosfate]

"The vigilance and outrage demonstrated on Twitter are necessary, not because the folks at Amazon are bad people, but because the books that were de-ranked were de-ranked because it is always the outsider whose books get de-ranked and “mainstream” society and the capitalist institutions that operate within it, whether my old company or Amazon, must self-police ruthlessly in order to guard against this kind of thing happening.

They didn’t, hence #AmazonFail.

In effect: guilty until proven innocent is the standard to which we must hold ourselves. Because that’s how the other half lives, without any choice in the matter."

http://rnash.com/article/amazonfail-a-straight-white-male-publisher-on-glitches-and-ham-fisted-error/

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

It's also necessary because Amazon has still not explained with any coherency what happened (or acknowledged it if they sincerely do not know what happened) and why. Fine, it was "ham-fisted," what was the it?

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

We may not find out for certain, if it was a security or proprietary issue. But right now they're blaming some French guy.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

It's always the goddamned French, isn't it.

[wolfy-writing.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I mean an official corporate "It was some French guy!" isn't exactly a ringing exoneration proving that Amazon was completely innocent in every way, even though some people seem eager to take it as such. And given the frequency with which this targeting does happen, it's worthwhile to subject apparent targeting to intensive scrutiny and attention.