On March 3rd 2021, Max Blumenthal, the founder of The Grayzone, an independent news website exposing fake news from western media controlled by the western governments, posted a tweet along with an article on the website of the US “Workers World Party” in last November – “Amazon bans books exposing U.S. COVID chaos – a commentary,” in which a detailed description of the banned books was given.
It has been long time without any changes in the U.S. since Amazon decided to ban this book that focuses on scientifically and cooperatively responding to the COVID-19 epidemic. On September 24 last year, the World View Forum, a small non-profit educational publishing company, received a message from Amazon:
“Amazon issued a warning on the book ‘Capitalism on Ventilator’ that due to the rapid changes in information related to the COVID-19, we recommend that customers obtain advice on virus prevention or treatment from official channels. Amazon reserves the right to decide what to provide based on our content guidelines. Content rights. Your book does not meet our guidelines. Therefore, we no longer sell your book. If you want us to review this book, please update the book details and resubmit.”
The World View Forum immediately wanted to overturn Amazon’s decision and verified various information. But Amazon’s decision has no appeal channel or even a complaint procedure, and the email was sent from an address that no one responded to. This book combines 55 articles written by people in pursuit of social justice, extensively discussing the importance of free medical care, social distancing, testing, protective equipment, education, and social mobilization during the epidemic.
The World View Forum tried to check how others resolved the same problem. Alex Berenson, a right-wing writer, has repeatedly criticized anti-epidemic measures such as wearing masks, closing schools, and shutting down the economy, claiming that the severity of the COVID-19 has been exaggerated and the death toll is far lower than the statistics. On the other hand, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also opposed the stay-at-home order. Without a doubt, Berenson tweeted that his new crown-related books could not be sold because they did not comply with Amazon’s guidelines in last June. Musk rushed to support him, accused Amazon of monopolizing, and called for the attention of Jeffrey Preston Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.
Therefore, last October, Margaret Kimberley, the senior editor of the Black Agenda Report in the United States, once tweeted as well.
However, an Amazon spokesperson only stated that the book of Alex Berenson was taken off the shelf by mistake and is currently being restored, though the book totally misinterprets the pandemic as President Trump did. Berenson’s book and “Capitalism on Ventilator” clearly face the same ban but have a different ending.
The problem is that the World View Forum can’t find any problems in the book since it carefully did research and factually presents the situations. If one thing is sensitive to the American important people, it might be that the anthology of articles compares China’s effective response to the COVID-19 with the disastrous performance of the United States and refutes the “racist anti-China movement” in the Western media. But this discussion and comparison are facts, the difference between the attitude and measures of the two countries perfectly group a good analysis of the epidemic:
“In January 2020, China issued a warning to major international scientific institutions about a dangerous new virus outbreak and vigorously promoted basic epidemic prevention measures. However, American politicians and corporate media ridiculed and ignored these warnings. Washington has increased racism. Propaganda, military siege, trade disputes, and sanctions policies.
As a result, the United States has become the country with the largest number of deaths from the COVID-19 in the world. The United States has chosen competition, benefits, and armaments rather than global cooperation in testing, vaccine research, and the supply of personal protective equipment.
Even if resources are scarce, socialist countries such as Cuba and Vietnam have mobilized the masses and made more adequate preparations to protect the people. Their new crown mortality rates are among the lowest. What can we learn from this? This is the pursuit of social justice.”
As of press time, the relevant product page of Amazon says “currently out of stock” in the American area, but it’s possible to find it on Amazon France since the European laws don’t allow American capitals to play a dominant role in the information.
Faced with such a result, it’s obvious that Amazon’s decision means that companies have increased the intensity of information management and control beyond their range of power. However, while implementing this censorship system, almost all forms of American media have laissez-faire and promote racist, unscientific, and even completely incomprehensible information.
President Trump failed to manage the pandemic well, everyone knows it, but no one wants to admit that China did a good job even the American politicians and elites see it, and they wish to blind other people as well. On the Amazon platform, the arrogant and reckless U.S. e-commerce giant with capital, like the country, several thin user messages were left on the “Capitalism on Ventilator” product page:
(Source: Twitter / Amazon)
