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How Amazon's Monster Erotica Book Ban Shaped CloudFlare's Censorship Stance (zdnet.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the write-what-you-will dept.

An anonymous reader writes with news that CloudFlare chief executive Matthew Prince recently spoke about how Amazon's ban on "monster erotica" helped shape his position on censorship. ZDNet reports: "I worry about Jeff Bezos' bizarre obsession with dinosaur sex," said Prince, towards the end of a long conversation in our New York newsroom. "I don't think I've ever heard a chief executive -- hell, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say anything like that before," I said. Prince was referring to how the bookseller and online retail giant banned so-called "monster erotica," a genre of fan-fiction revolving around fantasy-based fictional encounters with mythical or extinct creatures (including dinosaurs), which was for a time sold on its online bookstore. Amazon, according to reports, pulled hundreds of the self-published books it sold -- as well as some content that fetishized incest and rape -- despite "vague" guidelines by the retailer. "You can make a rational argument that if you're writing books fantasizing about having sex with animals or children, maybe that promotes a certain kind of behavior. But there's no risk of someone abusing a dinosaur," he said.

5 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Sex is scary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Weird people shouldn't have sexual fantasies. It scares boring normal people.

  2. What ban? by Nate+the+greatest · · Score: 4, Informative

    Uh, Amazon didn't ban monster erotica - or dino erotica: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb... http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb... The guy clearly doesn't know what he us talking about

    1. Re:What ban? by WarlockD · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you RTFA you will find a link to a 2013 article about it: linky

      I am sure there might of been a slashdot entry but alot of the eroctica section got nerfed. Then almost as soon as it happened it was back. Like almost no point to the whole thing. More likely not because of the outrage but because of the lawsuits on an undefined policy.

      That's what the cloud fire guy is talking about. Companies arbitrarily deciding whats good or bad on their networks. He makes probery the best quote out of the whole thing:

      "I'm somewhat skeptical of slippery slope arguments. But, if you ban books that depict sex with dinosaurs, it doesn't take much before you ban books." - CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince

  3. Re:There is a risk! by Sara+Chan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Human-dinosaur sex is technically a form of anal rape

    You are obviously male and confused. Essentially all the human-dinosaur sex fantasies are of male dinosaurs having regular (especially vaginal) sex with female people. The novels of those fantasies are hardly ever bought by men.

  4. Re:Yeah, CloudFlare is a specialist of censorship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    CloudFlare blocks visits from endpoints that are common sources of malicious behaviour - unfortunately, that includes TOR endpoints for obvious reasons.

    The reality is that sites don't want to get attacked.