The controversial new book “Why Is America So FAT?”, which criticizes the pharmaceutical industry for causing the obesity epidemic, has been banned by online auction company eBay.
Auctions listed for the book by Internet retailer InterNutrition.com were repeatedly cancelled by eBay with the only explanation being that the auctions violated eBay’s guidelines. Despite three separate auction listing attempts along with several emails sent to eBay explaining that the item for sale was only a book, eBay responded by suspending the auction account used to list the book which effectively bans sales of the book on eBay.
Further attempts were made to get an explanation from eBay as to how the material covered in “Why Is America So FAT?” could possibly violate their guidelines, but eBay’s only response so far has been that the “account has been suspended for engaging in activity expressly prohibited on eBay’s site.” With eBay advertising themselves to American consumers as a safe community for online sales, the question begs as to exactly what kind of community they really envision since they obviously do not allow freedom of speech.
While eBay has drawn criticism for banning other items from their site, this is the first time they have gone so far as to ban a book, which draws a scary comparison to the infamous Nazi book burnings. One can only guess about the true motivation behind the ban of “Why Is America So FAT?” but considering that it was only a few weeks ago that eBay also banned a napkin used to wipe the sweat from U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes’ brow the best guess is that eBay does not like some of the politically charged material in “Why Is America So FAT?”
The book “Why Is America So FAT?” was released in April of 2004 and is critical of the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA for causing the obesity epidemic and lists many prescription drugs that cause weight gain. The author of the book, Ben Kennedy, has been featured on many national radio shows and the book has been heralded as a “revealing account of how the pharmaceutical industry places their profits before the health of people.” Despite the ban by eBay, “Why Is America So FAT?” is available at other prominent online retailers like Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com.
murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
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