Amazon follows government advertising guidelines in China

On its Chinese website amazon.cn, Amazon is banning reviews of a book by President Xi Jinping, thus following government propaganda guidelines, according to “Reuters”. Accordingly, the government contacted the commerce giant – ratings of less than 5 stars for a book in which the speeches of the Chinese president are collected are unacceptable.

It was triggered by a negative review received two years after the book was published. This was followed by the decree of the Chinese government. Amazon defends the procedure by complying with “all applicable laws and regulations.” China is no exception.

Reuters also revealed an internal briefing from 2018 directing Amazon employees not to judge China’s propaganda mechanism as “right or wrong.” The company at that time was under Jeff Bezos He launched the “China Books” project to specifically sell Chinese government books. The site didn’t generate “any significant income,” but it was supposed to help the online retailer win over the Communist government.

And under the titles of the page inscriptions that reinforce the official line of the ruling party. One book obscures Uyghur labor camps in Xinjiang, while another praises China’s heroic struggle against the epidemic in Wuhan. According to Amazon, it is important to “make access to the written word and to different viewpoints”.