Technology

• We analyze the system Amazon deploys on the US “amazon.com” storefront to restrict shipments of certain products to specific regions. We found 17,050 products that Amazon restricted from being shipped to at least one world region.
• While many of the shipping restrictions are related to regulations involving WiFi, car seats, and other heavily regulated product categories, the most common product category restricted by Amazon in our study was books.
• Banned books were largely related to LGBTIQ, the occult, erotica, Christianity, and health and wellness. The regions affected by this censorship were the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and many other Middle Eastern countries as well as Brunei Darussalam, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, and Zambia. In our test sample, Amazon censored over 1.1% of the books sold on amazon.com in at least one of these regions.
• We identified three major censorship blocklists which Amazon assigns to different regions. In numerous cases, the resulting censorship is either overly broad or miscategorized. Examples include the restriction of books relating to breast cancer, recipe books invoking “food porn” euphemisms, Nietzsche’s Gay Science, and “rainbow” Mentos candy.
• To justify why restricted products cannot be shipped, Amazon uses varying error messages such as by conveying that an item is temporarily out of stock. In misleading its customers and censoring books, Amazon is violating its public commitments to both LGBTIQ and more broadly human rights.
• We conclude our report by providing Amazon multiple recommendations to address concerns raised by our work.