Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts

22 November, 2021

We Need More of This

Senator Elizabeth Warren is sued for violating First Amendment over Amazon book censorship calls (reclaimthenet.org)

When politicians violate the First Amendment, we need to slap them down hard.

A lawsuit has been filed against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) because of a letter she sent to Amazon, accusing the Big Tech giant of “peddling misinformation.”

The lawsuit claims she violated the First Amendment by sending the letter.

In September, Sen. Warren sent a letter to Amazon accusing it of peddling misinformation by promoting books spreading “falsehoods” about COVID-19. She said that the retailer’s algorithms had been recommending books promoting what she thinks is the wrong type of treatment.

She’s basically telling Amazon what they can sell and promote. That is a clear First Amendment violation.

“This pattern and practice of misbehavior suggests that Amazon is either unwilling or unable to modify its business practices to prevent the spread of falsehoods or the sale of inappropriate products—an unethical, unacceptable, and potentially unlawful course of action from one of the nation’s largest retailers,” Warren wrote in the letter.

Hopefully the answer is “unwilling” and that they remain so, despite pressure from the government.

03 October, 2021

She’s Just Jealous Because Her Own Misinformation Never Achieves Best Seller Status

Senator Elizabeth Warren questions Amazon on why books that contain "misinformation" are listed as bestsellers (reclaimthenet.org)

“During the week of August 22, 2021, my staff conducted sample searches on Amazon.com of pandemic-related terms such as ‘COVID-19,’ ‘COVID,’ ‘vaccine,’ ‘COVID 19 vaccine,’ and ‘pandemic,’” Sen. Warren wrote in a letter addressed to Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy. “The top results consistently included highly-ranked and favorably-tagged books based on falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines and cures.”

Once again, I must point out that many of these “falsehoods” were written by people with far more knowledge on the subject than Senator Warren (D-MA).

15 April, 2021

More From Indiana AG Todd Rokita

Excerpted in it’s entirety from DailyWire.com since this is from a public official.

I’m Launching An Investigation Into Big Tech Censorship. Here’s Why. | The Daily Wire

Big Tech’s well-documented censorship of conservative voices should concern every liberty-loving American.

That’s why I’m taking action to hold these online platforms accountable.

As Indiana’s Attorney General, I’m launching investigations into Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter to examine ways in which their behavior potentially has harmed consumers in our state.

One of my express duties as Attorney General is to protect consumers from harm caused by deceptive, unfair, or abusive business practices. In a free society, few assets are more important to citizens than access to information and the opportunity to express political viewpoints in meaningful forums.

In the Declaration of Independence, our nation’s founders proclaimed their grievances against the King of England based on the principle that government derives its “just powers” from the “consent of the governed.”

In modern times, social media platforms have become the foremost outlets through which average citizens express either their consent or objection to government policies.

These methods give citizens not only the chance to speak, but a chance to be heard — and a chance to rally behind elected officeholders and other public figures who represent their values.

We all can agree that government is constitutionally prohibited from suppressing political speech — that’s First Amendment 101 — while businesses have rights to regulate the kinds of speech they accommodate on their properties.

But digital behemoths such as Facebook, Twitter and others are unique. They have monopolistic power to control much of the nation’s information access and political dialogue. We therefore must sound an alarm when they use this power in a discriminatory way to suppress certain political views.

Everyone knows there are appropriate limits to free speech. No one has the right to threaten the safety of others or incite violence or spread defamatory lies. But that’s not the kind of censorship that concerns liberty-loving people.

Beyond the infamous banning of former President Donald Trump from Twitter, that platform went so far as blocking the spread of a New York Post story that exposed details of Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian dealings.

Simultaneously, Twitter had no problem spreading stories giving credibility to such hoaxes as Trump’s supposed collusion with Russia. Twitter even allowed China’s U.S. embassy to tweet propaganda justifying the mistreatment of Muslim minority women — only removing that tweet in response to intense public pressure (and a day after it permanently banned President Trump).

Clearly, Twitter has a particular bent against conservatives.

As I launch our investigations, I will explore all possible remedies that I can undertake as Indiana’s Attorney General to stop Big Tech’s violations of liberty.

In addition, I will support the enactment of laws by our state legislature and the U.S. Congress that safeguard citizens’ ability to freely access information online and express their views on social media.

The mega-billionaires who run Big Tech have plenty of means to protect their own prerogatives. I am more concerned about everyday Americans who have just as much right to the blessings of liberty as these rich and powerful magnates.

The corporate giants who control the digital universe must offer more than empty rhetoric to protect free speech. The ability to engage in open debate — across ideological and partisan divides — lies at the heart of America’s promise. This moment calls for us to defend the real-life process of liberty in action.

14 April, 2021

A Victory For Those Of Us In Indiana

Indiana AG Launches Investigation Into 5 Big Tech Companies For ‘Censoring Conservative Content’ | The Daily Wire

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced Wednesday he has launched an investigation into five Big Tech companies for allegedly censoring conservative content.

The statement from Rokita’s office said that the investigation centered around whether the companies “have potentially harmed Indiana consumers through business practices that are abusive, deceptive and/or unfair.”

This is how we beat Big Tech.

“In a free society, few assets are more important to consumers than access to information and the opportunity to express political viewpoints in meaningful forums,” Rokita said. “It is potentially harmful and unfair for these companies to manipulate content in ways they do not publicly discuss or that consumers do not fully understand.”

I can’t argue with that.

Wow, I already had tags for all five of the companies. Imagine that.

14 March, 2021

They Don’t Call it ‘Kindle’ for Nothing

Amazon used to be “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore”, now they’re “Earth’s Biggest Book Burner”.

Amazon Won’t ‘Sell Books That Frame LGBTQ+ Identity as a Mental Illness’ (legalinsurrection.com)

Amazon explained to Republican senators it won’t sell any books framing transgender and sexual identities as mental illnesses because of company policy.

The uproar started when Amazon removed When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment in 2018.

Of course that book does no such thing. But, as usual with the left, the narrative is far more important than the facts.

Even if it did, Amazon’s virtual monopoly on e-books gives it very limited freedom on what it can choose to sell or not to sell.

28 February, 2021

This Would be Racist if he was a Liberal

Amazon Not Streaming Clarence Thomas Doc During Black History Month | The Daily Wire

But since he’s a conservative, it’s okay.

“Recently, Amazon Prime dropped Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, an acclaimed and popular PBS documentary on Justice Clarence Thomas, making it unavailable to stream during Black History Month,” Breitbart reported. “Thomas is our nation’s only black justice currently serving on the U.S. Supreme Court, and one would think that between Amazon’s claim to ‘building an inclusive culture’ and the fact that it’s Black History Month, Amazon would want to stream this inspiring documentary on its platform.”

Obviously it’s only a certain kind of Black History that Amazon is willing to promote.

Part of me doesn’t have a problem with this. Thomas should “not be judged by the color of [his] skin, but by the content of [his] character.

But I didn’t make the rules. And the rules say that not celebrating Thomas’s historic career is racist.

21 February, 2021

Amazon Hops on Board the Censorship Train

Who am I kidding? They were already there when they shut down Parler.

But now they’re killing books for no reason other than the fact that the left doesn’t like them.

I spend a ton of money at Amazon. I’m starting to regret that more and more each day.

15 January, 2021

I guess Amazon will have to Shut Them Down

‘Kill All Republicans’: Website Sells 204 Items Promoting Violence, Hate

And they’re on AWS. Amazon needs to shut them down.

Oh yeah, there’s just one problem. Ok, two, actually.

First, the site is… oh, this is embarrassing. The site is Amazon.Com.

And second, well, it’s threats against Republicans. We don’t care about that.