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Banned Books: Analysis of Censorship on Amazon.com (2024)

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.

Despite Amazon’s announcement of suspension of shipments to Russia and Belarus, we found multiple products that could be shipped to these regions, including a mystery novel, a Nativity toy play set, and a tube of seafood-flavored cat toothpaste. This principle has increasingly been interpreted to cover access to information provided by private entities with substantial market power, obligating Amazon to address foreseeable harms linked to its decisions on restrictions of books. We showed how Amazon censored the shipment of LGBTIQ-related books, restricting access to literature crucial for LGBTIQ people’s experiences and expression of their identities, to fourteen countries: Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon, Papua New Guinea, Maldives, Zambia, Seychelles, Brunei Darussalam, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

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