Amazon has withdrawn an electronic book about pedophilia from its online store after complaints and a boycott threat, according to media reports on Thursday.
The book, The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct, by Philip Greaves, went on sale on Oct. 28 and cost US$4.79 to download, the reports said.
ABOUT-FACE
Amazon initially defended the book’s publication in a statement, but later withdrew it from its online store after a campaign against it spread on Twitter, Facebook and other media.
Protesters circulated a message through social networking sites that said: “Protect Children. Boycott Amazon.”
Colleen Curtis, a mother who works as a director of sales and marketing for a mutual fund company in Mississauga, Canada, circulated the protest message to her friends on Facebook.
NOT FREE SPEECH
Pedophilia is a crime, not a sexual preference and should not be covered by freedom of speech, she said by e-mail.
“I am morally and ethically disgusted by the content and by Amazon’s poor judgment and complete lack of remorse at making this information available to the public,” she said.
APOLOGETIC
The book title appeared on the company’s Web site on Thursday, but a subsequent message read: “We’re sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site.”
There was no immediate comment on the reports from Amazon, which is based in Seattle, despite repeated requests by Reuters.
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