April 13, 2009 | Online

Amazon.com slashes adult content

One morning you can find your favorite gay books on the Internet`s biggest bookseller, Amazon.com, and the next morning, nothing. This past weekend Amazon decided to remove all adult titles from its sales ranking.

However, much of the material targeted wasn't so much adult as it was gay. Even Annie Proulx's 'Brokeback Mountain' was among the titles losing its ranking.

"Amazon admits they are indeed stripping the sales ranking indicators for what they deem to be “adult” material," writer Mark R. Probst said. "Of course they are being hypocritical because there is a multitude of “adult” literature out there that is still being ranked – Harold Robbins, Jackie Collins, come on! They are using categories THEY set up (gay and lesbian) to now target these books as somehow offensive."

On Sunday, Amazon claimed it was merely a technical error and that no new adult policy had been established.

Probst thinks otherwise. He actually spoke with an Amazon rep and received an e-mail acknowledging that there had been a change in company policy.

"In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists," the representative wrote. "Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature."

Amazon will soon be enforcing a no e-mail policy as well. 

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