Sarcasm, Now Available at Amazon.com
December 2, 2011
Amazon and its content treasure trove have taken a turn many would not have expected. MIT’s Technology Review reveals “How Amazon Reviews Became a Vehicle for Protest.”
Since the pepper spray incident at UC Davis, some users have been channel their rage through the review feature on Amazon’s page for the spray used in the episode. Over three hundred reviews now exist with titles such as “Accept no substitutes when casually repressing students,” and “Feeling ‘Threatened’ or ‘Surrounded’?” The article asserts:
What’s astonishing is that Amazon seems fully aware of the potential of its reviews to be used for comedy or social commentary. Nothing in their Review Creation Guidelines specifically bans this kind of off-topic reviewing, and if anything they’re probably happy for all the free publicity that occurs anytime anyone decides to use their reviews as a vehicle for self expression.
Well, in all fairness, I don’t think I would have thought to include that language in the guidelines. And it would be foolish for Amazon to do so right now!
I wonder whether this “free publicity” will actually help pepper spray sales. Ah, unintended consequences. One more thought: As a publisher with reviews, how will a user know if a review has been edited or filtered? Nah, could not happen.
Cynthia Murrell, December 2, 2011
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