Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Assessing #amazonfail

This segment is a piece of news analysis. As such it reflects my professional judgment relative to the conclusions reached. The views expressed herein do not reflect those held by individual LISNews Netcast Network producers or by the administration of LISNews. Listener discretion is encouraged.

The news has been slow as of late. As noted by technology pundit Om Malik on IPTV show Cranky Geeks, a culture of fear exists right now. From Malik's perspective there are many cash-rich technology companies sitting on tremendous war chests flush with cash that normally would be spent but isn't. Hoarding seems to be taking place to stave off self-destruction. This sets part of the stage for this malaise.

Last week, the United States Department of Homeland Security saw the release of an intelligence report relative to “right wing extremism”. I have had a chance to review this brief nine page document. With the amount of vagueness found in that document, even the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association would be labeled a right-wing extremist group. A group of seven United States Senators have already called on Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to resign for rushing a document like this out even though she could have edited it.

Amazon seemed to many to take a step toward self-destruction this past week with the cataloging error that put over fifty thousand titles into a second-class state. Even though only a portion of the whole affected batch related to LGBT matters, the LGBT community rose up in unbridled militancy. While the “amazonfail” community was angry at Amazon for not doing business in a way their particular minority pressure group wanted, it seemed to escape discussion whether anything similar happened with other online book retailers. Cries of censorship rang out over a relatively small, minor situation.

Lost in the static is another story. Those stories I have mentioned are all great stories. The problem is that they presume which side of the digital divide you are on. They also presume being situated in the United States. As has been noted from online discussion, it is called censorship when a selection of LGBT materials becomes harder to access within Amazon's catalog. While the English word “censorship” might be at the core in the Amazon story and others, it might be better to term such inference of intended suppression. Censorship more properly involves a government using its coercive powers to dictate what can be said, written, printed, or shown in a media form.

During what was National Library Week in the United States, the President of Fiji responded to a court ruling deeming the military-backed regime illegal. The Fijian President responded by abrogating the nation's 1997 constitution, firing all the judges, and reappointing Commodore Frank Bainamarama to head the civilian government while also continuing to head the military. A journalist was recently detained for articles published outside Fiji criticizing the Fijian regime. FM relay transmitters operated in Fiji by the Australian Broadcast Corporation were shut down by action of the military regime. The Interim Prime Minister stated that the action was taken to silence negative criticism of Fiji's military regime.

While the Amazon incident was seen as bad, it pales in comparison to censorship backed with military force. In the case of Fiji, there have been reports of dissidents being spirited away to barracks for extended periods. Such often involved editors, mind you. Quite real human beings risk death for speaking out which, I imagine, is something far more serious than falling to the bottom of an Amazon search results page. The scariest part is that prior to December 2006, Fiji was a functioning democracy in the western model as part of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Right now Radio Australia as well as Radio New Zealand International are stepping up their efforts to broadcast on shortwave to the area. Due to the nature of Internet topology in the Pacific, not only can the Internet be effectively filtered but Fiji can also act as a choke point. When things such as the Amazon incident or recent fiber optic cable cuts come up, we occasionally miss the fragility of things. Maggie Reardon of CNET reported recently on just how fragile and vulnerable the Internet topology is in the United States. What happens in Fiji could happen in the United States too.

These seem to be dark times. Perseverance is needed.