Sen. Elizabeth Warren Sued For Asking Amazon To Suppress Covid Book In Search Results

[Kamaji]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Sued For Asking Amazon To Suppress Covid Book In Search Results

By Sam Neves
January 27, 2022

Warren sent a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy urging him to suppress the bestseller, ‘The Truth About COVID-19.’

Chelsea Greene Publishing is suing Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren for allegedly abusing her political authority to push Amazon to censor their book titled, “The Truth About COVID-19.” The publisher alleges serious First Amendment violations.

On September 7, 2021, Warren sent an official letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy urging him to suppress the bestseller written by Joseph Mercola and Ronnie Cummins in Amazon’s search results for “perpetuating dangerous conspiracies about COVID-19 and false and misleading information about vaccines.”

Chelsea Greene responded by filing a lawsuit accusing Warren of “violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by seeking to stop booksellers from selling and/or promoting” their book. The lawsuit cites the Supreme Court case Bantam Books v. Sullivan, which held that government officials violated the First Amendment by “sending letters to booksellers warning the sale of certain books was potentially unlawful.”

The ruling established that even though private companies have the right to censor speech within their platforms, they can’t do it on behalf of a government agent. It is unconstitutional for state officials to pressure a private company to suppress “objectionable” speech.

According to Warren’s letter, a search on Amazon’s website using the keywords “COVID-19” and “vaccine” would list the book as the first result. Warren concluded the letter by calling Amazon to modify its algorithms “so that they no longer do so.”

Chelsea Greene Publishing released a statement explaining their allegations against Warren.

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Source:  https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/27/sen-elizabeth-warren-sued-for-asking-amazon-to-suppress-covid-book-in-search-results/

[Millee]

I hope they prevail, but I don't have much faith in our judicial system.

[mountaineer]

Incredible chutzpah. Lizzie seems to long for a good ol'-fashioned book burning (Injun style, of course).

[Cyber Liberty]

FWIW, Amazon did not comply.  I just did a search and this book came up.

[DefiantMassRINO]

US Senators do not have legal authority to censor Amazon search results.

[240B]

On September 7, 2021, Warren sent an official letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy urging him to suppress the bestseller written by Joseph Mercola and Ronnie Cummins in Amazon’s search results for “perpetuating dangerous conspiracies about COVID-19 and false and misleading information about vaccines.”

Of course the irony in this is that Warren is literally 'perpetuating dangerous conspiracies' that the big tech companies are acting as government controlled censors. Had Amazon "obeyed" Warren, they would be acting as the Federal Censorship Department like Twitter and Facebook and the alphabet networks operate, instead of a private corporation.