Amazon Blames "Cataloging Error", Hacker to Blame?

After what must have been an embarrassing weekend for the online retail giant, Amazon has taken responsibility for its giant flub, referring to the removal of “adult-themed” gay and lesbian books as “an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error.”

Amazon denies that gay and lesbian materials were singled out, saying that “57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica” were affected by the “cataloging error.”

In an interesting development, one individual claims that he used a hack that inundated Amazon with complaints against gay and lesbian books. It’s just possible that this type of move could have caused Amazon’s systems to omit the books from their sales lists.

At least they have owned up to the gaffe. But has the damage already been done?

A call has gone out over the internet to completely boycott Amazon over this issue. First starting out as a Twitter meme (check out the search for #amazonfail), authors have called for users to send feedback to Amazon and stop purchasing anything from the company until the rank issue is remedied.