Amazon responds to queries, blames a 'glitch'

As readers continue to try to figure out what happened in Amazon's database so that the sales rankings of certain books and not others disappeared -- which caused some to be omitted from search results on the site -- it seems that Amazon is doing much the same thing.

Responding to our initial post, Amazon Director of Corporate Communications Patty Smith e-mailed Jacket Copy. "There was a glitch with our sales rank feature that is in the process of being fixed," she wrote. "We're working to correct the problem as quickly as possible."

We wanted to know more. We asked for further explanation of the glitch, which has removed the rankings of gay-themed books such as Paul Monette's "Becoming A Man," Virginia Woolf's "Orlando," and others.

And I asked Patty Smith this:

From a layperson's perspective, this glitch does seem to have affected certain types of books more heavily than others. In fact, only one of the top 10 books in your Gay & Lesbian section continues to have a sales ranking (the Kindle version of "The Picture of Dorian Gray"). No other section is similarly affected. Can you comment on that?

The reply:

Unfortunately, I'm not able to comment further.  We're working to resolve the issue, but I don't have any further information.

Perhaps we'll learn more Monday.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Comments

[Cally Beck]

It sounds as though they're saying that it's a glitch's fault for GLBT material getting hit so hard, which honestly, I buy because it seems like all "adult" material got de-ranked, and they went gay deals with sexuality is adult. rape (even how to prevent it!) deals with sexuality is adult.

What the "glitch" theory doesn't explain is the policy of deranking "adult" books in the first place (which is blatant censorship), or why violent books don't seem to be a part of the algorithms at all.

Still awaiting an explanation that reduces my fury,
Cally

[Julia Sullivan]

it seems like all "adult" material got de-ranked

Porn star Ron Jeremy's raunchy autobiography is still ranked. A scholarly bio of Ellen DeGeneres is de-ranked.

Mein Kampf is still ranked. Heather Has Two Mommies is de-ranked.

This is no glitch.

[Stars]

After Jeff Bezos pimped the Kindle all over The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I think maybe he should get himself back on the show and explain what they were thinking.

Glitch, my eye.

[Daniel Haran]

The "glitch" also affects books on sex and disability:
http://lisybabe.blogspot.com/2009/04/amazonfail.html

[Lev Raphael]

So many ironies here.

My 19th book is a memoir called My Germany. It charts the histories of my Holocaust survivor parents and my own complex relationship over the years with Germany real and imagined.

There's some gay content because I talk about how all this was woven together with my sexual identity, but it's not remotely an "adult" book:

http://www.levraphael.com/mygermany.html

So if people on amazon are looking for Holocaust-related memoirs, or books by or about the Second Generation (children of survivors), my book won't show up. Ghettoized by Amazon. What a feeling.

[gtpeach]

You know, Mark Probst made an inquiry. The response he got didn't sound like a glitch. It is as follows:

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

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Best regards,
Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage

[James Buchanan]

Well, and glitches don't send emails days ahead of the mass de-ranking to author/publishers like Mark Probst explaining the new "policy" http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html

[eric]

Ms mad Cally,
Censorship? Can you still buy these books? Sure you can, don't be so melodramatic. Anyhow, I'm for more "glitches" like these. Someone at Amazon has a conscience. Well, actually, we all do: http://tinyurl.com/AfterDeathThenWhat

[Yovonne]

I have a feeling that the only glitch is between someone's ears at Amazon corporate HQ. We'll see tomorrow if they fix it, or at least do a better job of explaining and then make honest efforts to actually fix the 'glitch'.

[Charlene]

Eric, don't be stupid. Your ability to FIND these books is being censored. Go try Amazon's search to find a book by these authors: it WON'T SHOW UP.

If that's not censorship, what is?

[Joe The Plumber]

Hey Eric, take your religious sales pitch elsewhere. It's not appropriate and you're not going to get converts. (But trolls like you couldn't convert a touchdown.)

[Michelle Anderson]

"Glitch" could mean someone did something stupid. There are adult heterosexual romance books that still have their sales rank, while LGBT books with no sexual content lost sales rank.

If the only trigger for some of these books losing their ranking was "LGBT"...that is not simply a "glitch" but deliberately categorizing LGBT books as adult.

If the trigger was "homosexual" then "Preventing Homosexuality" would have lost it's sales rank. A book that surely discusses gay sexuality, but doesn't call us "gay" or "lgbt"...but "homosexual"

[Cat Faber]

There's a suggestion on livejournal that it may be some hate group reporting books dealing with gayness in any way (the feminism is a new one on me, but I can picture these going together in that sort of mind) to Amazon as objectionable adult content. If Amazon has some automated way of withdrawing material that enough people flag as objectionable from the rankings, that could be kicking in without human supervision.

Check it out here: http://tehdely.livejournal.com/88823.html

I was really mad at Amazon at first, but now I'm going to hold off until I hear a bit more from them about what happened. If this *was* some sort of coordinated fundy attack, then Amazon needs to protect its flagging system better, but I'm not mad at them.

[Matt]

I just spent $70 on some gay titles I'd been meaning to get for some time from Powell's Books.

No trouble finding them in the search results on that company's site.

[GEAH]

Hilarious.

A company named after a band of lesbians has banned gay publications.

[TarotByArwen]

Glitch my behind. Glitches don't send out customer service letters about "adult" content. This has been documented since at least February. It just got hot today. #amazonfail from Twitter is very enlightening.

[RogueTess]

Hah. A glitch since February?
http://www.craigspoplife.blogspot.com/2009/04/is-amazon-homophobic.html

[Darren G. Burton]

It's not just gay and lesbian books being targeted. Many genres are being affected. I have four books on Amazon that lost their sales rankings on Friday, and my books are books on dating advice for straight people. Nothing adult, nothing sexual, nothing controversial. Just self-help advice books.

[Xenu]

It's called the Amazon "homophobic glitch."

[Waiyde Palmer]

Hardly a glitch~a formulated bug or virus launched by outside forces or internally, conspiracy buffs will opine on that issue for days-but I am man of reason who KNOWS homophobia when its waved like a red flag in front of my face. UNTIL an adequate explanation is forthcoming I have deleted my Amazon account.

[FreeThinker]

Maybe they just are offended by the "literature" that the leftist Times seems intent to inquire about. If they were burning something virtuous or noble, I have no doubt Ms. Kellog would be chanting with the chorus, but apparently the "glitch" has struck a nerve with the PC police. Good riddance LAT.

[Melanie]

It's not only about gay and lesbian authors-many feminist books and/or books about women's issues have been de-listed. The last book that I just did a search for was "Loose Girl: A Tale of Promiscuity", an important memoir of the trails and tribulations of a girl growing up as she was exploited and overcame a sexual addition. The book is not obscene in any way. Another book that comes to mind is the feminist book "Full Frontal Feminism" by Valenti-delisted.

This is totally unacceptable.

If people don't want to buy adult books, don't buy them. But people need access to many human sexuality books that have been delisted that may teach about safe sex, etc.

[James P]

A 'glitch'? I don't think a glitch makes an anti-gay book the first title that comes up when you do a book search using the term 'homosexuality'. It takes much more than that. It takes a prejudiced agenda and will.

[Paul Watson]

Expecting us to believe this is a "glitch" is just another insult. If it was a glitch (for example, based on industry-standard BISAC codes used to subject-code books) then the anti-gay books about homosexuality would have been similarly affected.

There are two possibilities for how this happened. Either someone at Amazon (with or without the permission of the CEO) has changed the ranking system or an external party - such as an anti-gay hate group - has found a way to hack/game Amazon into de-listing all these books.

[Christine Beatty]

There is a second, more nefarious part to this story: using Amazon's search function in Books for "homosexuality" gives first priority returns to anti-LGBT titles. The first page is most ANTI-gay books with the #1 being: "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality" coauthoered by homophobe Joseph Nicolosi.

I have written Amazon to tell them if they do not remove this bias I will not only start shopping Barnes & Noble, I will cancel my Amazon.com Mastercard. I've spent $10K+ at Amazon the last couple of years, but they won't see another dime.

[James Martin]

Why is there such a war on adults? Why is adult a bad word? Because we live in a society which equates knowledge with immorality and refuses to guide children into adulthood via any means other than through enforced ignorance?

Shame.

[Mucker]

Amazon is in the main an overpriced under disclosing scam to separate the unaware from as many of their dollars as possible. Don't believe me. Try to get details on any product listed on that site. I mean the specs, the version, the details of what is included in the purchase. Meanwhile do research on the goods on the web. You will learn things you need to know to purchase quality and value and you will find all of that at other sites at less cost. Foooget Amazon.

[Tracey]

Uh-huh. A glitch that overwhelmingly targets LGBTQ works (including classic works of literature, histories documenting social issues and prejudice, biographies and gay romances without one iota of sex in the stories) and, to a lesser degree, feminist works, while fiction and non-fiction that is overwhelmingly heterosexual, traditional and/or violent gets a a pass.

Pretty odd glitch, I'd say. I'd even go so far as to call it an agenda.

Listen up, Amazon: YOU ARE NOT MY BABYSITTER. I am capable of deciding for myself what is and is not adult. I also trust that parents on the other side of the screen are capable of monitoring their children's purchases on their own without any help from you. I resent your treating me as if I cannot be trusted to choose what I want or do not want to read. Whether you approve of what I read or not, it is MY choice, and not yours.

Since you do not wish to publicize that you are selling such "adult" literature as Homophobia: A History, Heather Has Two Mommies, E.M. Forster's Maurice, James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room--not to mention entire lines of gay romances from various romance publishers--and since you have gone out of your way to conceal the fact that the books are being sold and to make them less easy to find in keyword searches, you will be losing sales. After all,as my friend Gill pointed out, if people want these books and cannot find them, they're going to assume that you do not carry them and will go elsewhere. I would also not be surprised to learn that you have lost customers' accounts as a result of AmazonFail; you will be losing mine later today. This too will cost you sales in the future. Moreover, this has been covered by various news organizations, radio, blogs, and of course Twitter. All this is ending up on the Internet...and the Internet has long memories.

And I'm just waiting to see what happens if various organizations that advocate for LGBTQ people or for women notice the discrimination.

This "glitch" which has existed since February has effectively shot Amazon in the foot. It has not helped you; it has hurt you. And it will continue to hurt you in the future.

The smartest thing you could do would be to change your policy permanently, admit publicly that this was a mistake and that it will NOT be repeated, reinstate all of the lost sales rankings (and with the rankings, the ability to search for the books by keyword as well as by title and author--and have a sale of LGBTQ and feminist books immediately in apology.

But I don't expect you to do anything nearly that sensible. If you were inclined to be logical, you wouldn't have pulled this nonsense in the first place.

[JD]

I'm a computer science major and honestly, the likelihood that some random "glitch" just targeted LGBT products and somehow left out books that obviously preach hate and violence is astronomical. Computer programs are sets of unambiguous instructions for a computer to follow. Basically, you tell it *exactly* what to do and it does just that and ONLY that, it does not fill in the blanks on its own because it can't -- it can only do what you tell it. This is why you rarely, if ever, see coherent errors or glitches, let alone something so uniform as this one. When an error happens, it is more linear and nonsensical because a computer doesn't have a mind of its own. A webpage won't display right, a program will unexpectedly close, you will not be able to access your e-mail -- all chaotic results. You will never find that in your "My Music" folder, only your jazz was deleted and everything else is fine. This is why this Amazon.com problem being a "glitch" is like dropping a glass on the floor and having the shards spell out your name (very, very, unlikely). I wish more people understood programming as I do so that they could more clearly see that this is not a computer's fault.

[Joseph]

Orlando isn't a gay-themed book at all, nor is it about transgender issues. It's a feminist criticism of male-dominated society more than anything else. What strikes me as odd is that there is no adult content whatsoever. Orlando is a PG-13 book at worst.

I bought this book from Amazon in late January with no difficulty and just did a quick search now and found it easily. Stop with all the conspiracies, people. I completely accept the glitch explanation.

[Angie]

If all the books deranked had been GLBT-related (which isn't the case because there were het erotica books hit) and if all the GLBT-related books on the site had been hit (which isn't the case because A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality wasn't deranked) then I might buy their "glitch" story. As it is, it feels like a lame attempt at spinning this PR disaster to something they can squirm out of.

If it turns out this was some sort of auto-deranker exploited by some radical conservative group, as suggested above, then I might consider shifting my opinion from Malice to Stupidity. The responses given to authors like Mark Probst didn't mention any complaints, however; it sounded like something Amazon did on its own. Why would they have worded the e-mails that way if it'd been some sort of automatic system? Sorry, Amazon, but this one's going to take a lot of convincing.

[Angry Gay]

This mkes me so cross.

[elliot]

As of Monday morning, 6:00AM central time, Amazon is still claiming this is a glitch. It's as if they think this is merely an image issue, and if they repeat the branding tagline of "just a glitch" enough, it will sink in and people will 'buy' the glitch theory.

It's a shame that the people who run one of the larger information distribution systems in the world just don't get that, yes, information is important to society, and how, when, and where you regulate access to that information makes a difference.

Amazon is more than being flippant when they call this a 'glitch.' Amazon is talking down to the public as if we're a bunch of pre-schoolers who couldn't possibly begin to understand how a database or a computer works. The terminology of 'glitch' is as technical as Amazon dares to get with us neophytes. Not surprisingly, being condescended to in this manner is pissing people off as much as if not more than the original misguided policy that started this whole mess in the first place.

I look forward to the days when alternatives to companies like Amazon are more widespread so that the dissemination of information doesn't have to be trusted to corporate boobs.

transcript of e-mail from Amazon:

http://www.yudc.com/amazonfail.html

[Ex-Amazonian]

Corp comm saying it's a "glitch" doesn't preclude what is, to me, the most obviously likely answer... somebody is gaming the system (corp comm can't say "we were gamed" while they're trying to fix it because then it opens them up to other groups trying to game the system... it's in their best interest to be obscure in their statements for the short term). From creationist vote-bot networks on youtube we know there is a concerted effort in some portions of the conservative christian community to make it more difficult to find things which disagree with their worldview.

I worked at Amazon 10 years ago and while corporate cultures change, it was pretty far from being anti-LGBT at that time. I would suspect they implemented some bit of code that takes into account the tags people apply, the "is this offensive" button clicks on comments, and some combination of other factors which was "you might also like this" matches better... but somebody figured out how to hammer that system and drop books out of rankings (the replacing with anti-LGBT books in the rankings seems to indicate this even more).

While it is entirely possible somebody in the company responded to requests to remove the LBGT positive literature, it seems much more likely that it was somebody outside the company that gamed the system. This is something that would obviously be figured out/found and Amazon isn't generally a stupid enough company to shoot themselves in the foot like this.

What's the saying? "Never attribute malice as a reason when incompetence will do" Or something of that nature.

[Dean]

Here's the thing: Amazon *may* have a type of glitch which removes sales rankings from books that people have deemed inappropriate and flagged.

If this is the case and some activists have picked up on it? You're in for a whole world of trouble.

This makes Amazon dumb for having such a ridiculous system.

What Amazon have to do is be completely transparent and explain exactly what happened, why, and how they are going to prevent it from happening again.

It's the only way they can restore customer trust and loyalty.

[donkey]

relax people- amazon does not have a policy of discrimination toward lgbt books. this is a result of bad technology and maybe some incompetent employees or just a mistake. it will be cleared up soon enough and all this uproar will be for nothing. do you really think a company as big as amazon would want to lose millions of their own customers? if this were actually company policy i would never shop there again and i'd cut up my amazon credit card. we'll see soon enough.

[A.]

Disability books have been affected also, including at least one sociology text book. More detail and links at:

http://reunifygally.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/amazonfail-hurts-both-disability-and-glbt-communities/

[Jessica Gottlieb]

Lucky me, I have a friend at Amazon. :)

I think its much ado about nothing.

[romath]

Short of internal sabotage, there's "adult" filtering software out there that could do this. Thus, it's not out of the question that it was an unintended consequence of installing a new search or filtering algorithm (that's quite apart from the issue of 'child-proof' filtering). In fact, the filtering may have reached a lot wider than is being reported, as so often happens with these sorts of programs. After all, Amazon gets nothing good out of filtering out such a major customer base and friends - nothing at all.

[Barbara Blanton]

Amazon seems to think they are the Lion that roars these days. Thousands of us have been protesting the unannounced increase of the price of most Kindle books from $9.99 to anywhere from $14-17 dollars when Kindle2 came out. Every time we find a new Kindle with the increased price, someone puts a 9 99boycott in the keyword section which means they will purchase this book at Costco, Walmart, get it from the Library or wait and see if the price comes down.

It seems a silly thing to do in a recession and so does not ranking the relationship books. I wonder what they are smoking there? You might come up with a keyword to show your displeasure at the unranking if they don't fix it and then define what it means in the comments section for that book....like we are not buying GLBT books at Amazon until they put them back in the rankings and why....

They have noticed us. They have not changed their policy but seem to bring the prices down more quickly because I'm sure the boycott is affecting their overall sales projections.

[Randy P]

Petition (over 14,000 signatures) to Amazon:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy

[mensa7]

Amazon your online savvy SUCKS.
How long would it take someone in authority to APOLOGISE to the LGBT community and our friends?
Until I read at a trusted LGBT site, (ie Americablog, Gay.com, GLAAD, or Pam's House Blend) i won't spend a dime with Amazon.

[May]

There are many places to buy books online (and off-line) where booksellers do not censor content. One very good site is TomFolio.com. TomFolio booksellers sign a code of ethics which they must abide by to sell on the site in order to insure that book buyers are treated courteously and fairly.

TomFolio.com's categories for Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transgender books is at:
http://www.tomfolio.com/bookscat.asp?catid=19

Or you can just enter a title in the search engine as not all booksellers put their books in Tom's convenient categories.

There are a lot of things which are not so wonderful about Amazon. This issue is but one of many. Monopolies are inherently flawed.

[Edward G. Talbot]

This is obviously not a glitch unless they are now claiming they had no intention of excluding any adult titles from anything and the system literally just did this when they were trying to do something else. That defies credibility.

So assuming they were trying to exclude adult titles in some way, they botched it badly. It's not a glitch. My guess is that a combination of bad decisions and technical "easy ways out" led to this and they are scrambling to decide how to undo most of it while hanging on to something while not admitting to total capitulation.

Whether they "intentionally" decided that the vast majority of LBGT books should be excluded, I don't think we know. I'd hesitate to ascribe real malice when a poor decision is so much more of a likely answer.

[P-Nut]

Amazon Music still tracking similar sales ranks. Time to take-over the top sellers list with these titles? Let's do it.

http://www.amazon.com/Gay-Classics-Vol-Ridin-Rainbow/dp/B000001QT3

[Vanessa]

This is bad, but hardly a glitch. After all, is the removal of negative reviews of Scientology books a glitch? Or their refusal to carry or sell books critical of Scientology?

http://glosslip.com/2008/04/10/is-amazoncom-censuring-negative-reviews-of-scientology-books-sure-looks-like-it/

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1999/05/19787

It's not censorship if you can still get the materials elsewhere. So let's buy all of our purchases elsewhere. See how fast they fix the "glitches" when they've lost their customer base.

[Avi Rappoport]

Thank you Carolyn Kellogg for getting something out of Amazon. Before and after, there's been complete silence.

After I posted to say I thought that might be correct, that people made errors and switched settings that they shouldn't have, I realized that word "glitch" was infuriating. It trivializes the effect of the error and seems to do the same to the people who care -- customers and authors.

I'd call it a colossal mistake, unintended but clearly wrong. And the execs of Amazon ought to be standing up and apologizing for the disrespect of both the mistake and the silence. Customers deserve respect!

[Houston]

Okay, it's now Monday afternoon. Any explanation from Amazon about the nature of this "glitch"? I've cancelled my Amazon.com Mastercard as well. All books sold by Amazon can be found elsewhere. I've just started buying music through Amazon, but I guess I'll go back to iTunes.