After two decades of reporting for ETO about mainstream discrimination against adult businesses, Dale Bradford has now found himself on the receiving end of it.
His book, ‘From Sex Shops To Supermarkets: How Adult Toys Became A Multi-Billion-Pound Industry’ was published on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform in February, and Bradford intended to promote the title on Twitter and on Amazon itself.
After setting up a Twitter Professional account – a requirement before products or services can be promoted – he was disappointed to have his campaign rejected due to it promoting “adult sexual products and services”.
Worse was to follow. Despite being one of the world’s biggest sellers of sex toys, Amazon told Bradford his ad did not comply with its Creative Acceptance Policies, which prohibited “profane or vulgar content in any form, including gestures or obfuscated or abbreviated terms”.
Bradford appealed this decision, explaining that the book was a serious study of a perfectly legal product sector.
After reviewing the case, Amazon duly allowed the ad to run.
For just over a week.
And then it was ‘moderated’ again, this time for unsuitable content. Amazon helpfully explained: “This may include provocative content, such as: sexual innuendo, suggestive poses, exposure of sensitive areas, or images that draw undue attention to intimate body parts in a sexual way.”
Bradford appealed once again, and was this time told: “Your cover image contains prohibited products which is considered to be a sexual content as per our Creative Acceptance Policies.”
“While admiring the eyesight of whoever spotted the small non-phallic toy hiding among the basket of groceries on the cover, I am obviously disheartened at this ruling,” said Bradford. “Not least because Amazon is one of the world’s biggest sellers of pleasure products and typing ‘sex toy’ into its search bar brings up over 4,000 results, with many on the first page being far, far more explicit than anything on the cover of my book.”
