Online books giant Amazon profits from £1 ebooks 'on terror, hate and violence'

25 June 2012

The Daily Mail

Amazon has been accused of making money selling offensive, racist and potentially dangerous ebooks on subjects ranging from bomb-making to drug growing. The internet giant sells a vast number of ebooks, downloaded by readers from its website, some for as little as £1. It allows anyone to upload an ebook for sale, without safeguards against content that would be refused by traditional publishers.

Examples include anti-Semitic prose, instructions on growing marijuana, and novels which apparently glorify dog fighting. One ebook, Prophet Muhammad: Monster of History, includes images of a Koran being burned and a woman being hanged. The author, Jake Neuman, says of its content on his own website: ‘The writings contained in this book are now illegal in most Western countries.’ But users of amazon.co.uk can access his work at the click of a mouse. The Muslim Council of Britain has now called for Amazon to ‘take proper responsibility’ for the content of the books on its site. They added: ‘Freedom of expression should not be unlimited, and publications that cause anti-Muslim hatred, anti-Jewish hatred or homophobic hatred should not be allowed.’

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