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Amazon declined to sell a book so Elon Musk called for it to be broken up
That escalated quickly
Elon Musk has called for Amazon.com to be broken up because it declined to sell a book.
As is so often the case these days, this one starts on Twitter where author Alex Berenson expressed his displeasure at Amazon declining to sell his new tome titled “Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns: Part 1: Introduction and Death Counts and Estimates”.
Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it!
But we digress.
Berenson expressed his considerable disappointment that Amazon refused to sell his book and labelled the decision to do so censorship.
Oh fuck me. I can’t believe it. They censored it. pic.twitter.com/GfPEr7OiV2
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) June 4, 2020
Today @amazon refused to publish my booklet about the coronavirus because it “did not comply” with their (undisclosed) guidelines. This is outrageous censorship from a company that has gained hugely from lockdowns - and dominates the US book market, especially with stores closed! pic.twitter.com/eQYI9CMhUX
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) June 4, 2020
His Muskiness, perhaps a little fatigued after a big week of launching people and satellites into orbit and fighting to keep Tesla factories open, shot back as follows.
Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2020
It's unclear if Musk had any knowledge about the book’s contents or Amazon’s policies. Nor is there any indication of why he felt that this incident should be the trigger for governmental intervention in Amazon’s operations. But Berenson feels Musk's star power encouraged Amazon to reverse its decision and sell the book in its digital souk.
IT'S LIVE! Again, thanks to @elonmusk and everyone who helped.https://t.co/UDdRlQ4wYL
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) June 4, 2020
And just to top this turgid tale, despite the absence of evidence of censorship and Amazon being free to stock whatever products it wishes to, the book’s binning became a skirmish in the culture wars. ®