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August 24, 2018, 09:44:26 PM |
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Arbitrary rules and guidelines
Take a look at this example from Amazon. In 2016, the retail giant chose to start banning or sanctioning erotic fiction. At first glance there seems to be nothing wrong with this decision, if Amazon wishes to keep the products sold on their site friendly to all ages then this makes perfect sense. This only becomes a problem when you consider the fact that, despite their ruling, Amazon still sells the books from the ’50 Shades of Grey’ franchise. This means that they are not keeping true to their own rules. Their reasoning behind banning other forms of erotic fiction derives from their intentionally vague guidelines regarding questionable content. Under the subheading of ‘Offensive Content,’ they state ‘What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect,’ Essentially, this sentence means nothing. Offensive content is not an absolute term, so why would Amazon pretend that it is? The only answer is so that they can use their discretion to make decisions without ever having to provide legitimate reasons.
It should be reiterated that the problem here is not with the banning of offensive or erotic content, the problem is with the fact that Amazon can change the rules whenever they wish. We all know why 50 Shades of Grey, or books like A Clockwork Orange are allowed on Amazon’s marketplace while others are not: money. Centralized marketplaces can out-rightly choose what content they want without ever having to explain why.
The example provided may seem like a niche situation which doesn’t apply to most marketplace sellers, but the point is that if it can happen to one type of content so easily, it can happen to any. They care only about making money and have no regard for the creation of a healthy ecosystem. This is a problem that all centralized marketplaces have.
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