Amazon infamously censored a compassionate but unapologetically honest book about gender dysphoria and transgender politics. One year later, that book author, Ryan T. Anderson, was interviewed on the incident and what it portends for American politics.
No good deed goes unpunished. President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., discovered in 2021 that his book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, had been removed from Amazon. “‘It's been almost a year since Amazon delisted my book, ‘When Harry Became Sally,’” he tweeted Jan 10. “The @DailySignal sent a crew out to my home to do a short video on what happened--and why it matters. Ultimately it's a sign both of strength--and weakness--when it comes to BigTech & trans ideology.”
He warned that the implications of Amazon censorship are bigger than the words and ideas of one author: “[S]o even if you disagree with me, you should be concerned if a social media company can choke the dissemination of a newspaper’s reach, if a — the world’s largest commerce online site, [Amazon,] its the largest retailer in the world — is a choke point.”
Anderson said he had gone to great pains to make sure the book handled the discourse around transgenderism delicately, and even so was purged from the platform for violating Amazon’s moderation policy. The Daily Signal covered the incident, quoting its correspondence with an Amazon spokesperson:
“As a bookseller, we provide our customers with access to a variety of viewpoints, including books that some customers may find objectionable. That said, we reserve the right not to sell certain content as described in our content guidelines for books, which you can find here.”
Amazon’s Content Guidelines for Books page makes no mention of banning scientific facts that offend liberals, but it does cite both “content that we determine is hate speech” and “other material we deem inappropriate or offensive,” which may as well mean the same thing.
Anderson explained in The Daily Signal’s video that what spurred him to create the book was that there was a void in transgender discourse:
It's been almost a year since Amazon delisted my book, "When Harry Became Sally." The @DailySignal sent a crew out to my home to do a short video on what happened--and why it matters. Ultimately it's a sign both of strength--and weakness--when it comes to BigTech & trans ideology pic.twitter.com/diRwMNyDQJ
— Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) January 10, 2022
“You wouldn’t want to be experiencing gender dysphoria, but if you were experiencing it, you would want someone to be giving you kind of like authentic, compassionate guidance. And compassion detached from truth isn’t authentic, right? It’s a phony form of compassion, where you just say what people want to hear.”
Such nuance is rare in modern society that Anderson explained he felt compelled to take action: “If I don’t write this book, who will?”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Amazon at (206) 266-1000, or by mail to 410 Terry Avenue North Seattle, WA 98109, and demand that Amazon support the ideals of the First Amendment. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
