Is Amazon.com Censoring Negative Reviews Of Scientology Books? Sure Looks Like It
Friday, 11. April 2008, 21:01:12
YOUNG DIGG ITS
When will they ever learn? You just can’t mess with the interbutts. First it was YouTube, who cowered in fear, when it suppressed free speech and fair use by pulling the leaked Tom Cruise Video, then it was Ebay allowing the Church of Scientology to yank post-consumer e-meters off its website, now it’s Amazon pulling negative reviews of Dianetics.
http://www.amazon.com/Somebody-deleting-negative-Dianetics-censorship/forum/Fx171MU8NK77BC9/Tx1YWZPEE92WDND/1/ref=cm_cd_ef_tft_tp?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=088404632X
These are enormous, multi-million dollar companies acquiescing to a so-called religion, which has the structure of a pyramid scheme with a rich history of illegal and collusive activities to defraud and manipulate its members and the public at large.
The perceived threat which has caused Ebay, YouTube, Amazon and even social network sites like Digg to cow-tow to the CoS is litigious. The Church of Scientology has a history of socking individuals and corporations alike with spurious lawsuits which they either don’t intend to pursue, have no hope of winning and use simply to frighten people into doing what they want.
http://koavf.blogspot.com/2008/02/dianetics-diaries.html
This author documented his interaction with AMAZON.COM on his reviews of Dianetics being deleted repeatedly, this is only an excerpt, I suggest you read the whole thing:
______
_________ On February 21, someone posted on Reddit that Amazon had deleted (virtually) all negative reviews of the book again. Mine was included again. This time I was sincerely surprised and disappointed, because I think my review was completely legitimate and I restricted my comments to the substance of the book itself, rather than any attack on the author or speculation on how this was an elaborate ruse to become rich. So, I wrote them again.A review I recently wrote of Dianetics and it was deleted. I was told this was because I discussed authors and their intentions in the review. I re-wrote it focusing exclusively on the content of the book and the style of writing and this review has been deleted as well, even though over 150 users and 99% found it useful. Please explain to me why this review was deleted.
Response (paraphrased):
I’ve checked both the reviews for “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” and see that they doesn’t follow our guidelines.
Your latest review of “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” was removed because your comments in large part focused on your personal opinions of the subject matter, rather than reviewing this item.
We provide our customer reviews section for you to comment on the merits of the item and its style. We ask that you not use it as a place for a discussion of the subject matter…What I can suggest is that you resubmit your review, restricting your comments to critically analyzing the content of the item. ___________s this not the United States? Are we not living in the land which birthed modern democracy, where the will of the people decide the outcome? The will of the people is clear. The hierarchal head of Scientology’s sole purpose is to control its members thoughts, words and deeds, manipulate its image and extract as much money out of those individuals too emotionally weak or vulnerable to see past its false guises.
If this were Microsoft, Exxon, Google, Enron or any other powerful entity, would we allow a systematic aversion of the truth and fairness to continue unchecked simply because of a “perceived” threat? And have we forgotten the most apparent element in all this? THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A RELIGION FOR GOD’S SAKE. Religions by their nature shouldn’t frighten people into silence regardless of their actions. Therefore I conclude this ISN’T A RELIGION. I think we know what the CoS is, and with history as our teacher, we will be ashamed we allowed this shadow of darkness and depravity to lurk in the corners of our society for too long.
Since when are religions allowed to run rough-shod over our legal system?
Enough is enough, wake up mainstream media, wake up federal government, WAKE UP CLEARWATER AND HOLLYWOOD, you are being taken over by people who believe in aliens and want to “clear the planet” of non-Scientologists and obliterate psychiatry. Now that should frighten you.
(via Toads and Enturbulation.org)
SOURCE:
http://glosslip.com/2008/04/10/is-amazoncom-censuring-negative-reviews-of-scientology-books-sure-looks-like-it/
