One of the world’s top entrepreneurs believes Amazon has a monopoly on speech and needs to be broken apart.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk ripped Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in a Thursday tweet for his company’s temporary decision to bar the sale of a book by former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson investigating the number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus.
“This is insane @JeffBezos,” tweeted Musk. “Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!”
This is insane @JeffBezos
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2020
Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2020
Berenson’s book, COVID-19 and Lockdowns: Part 1: Introduction and Death Counts and Estimates, was removed from the Amazon ecosystem for several hours on Thursday, and Berenson shared the nondescript email he received from Amazon.
“Your book does not comply with our guidelines,” the statement from Amazon read. “As a result we are not offering your book for sale.”
Today @amazon refused to publish my booklet about the coronavirus because it “did not comply” with their (undisclosed) guidelines. This is outrageous censorship from a company that has gained hugely from lockdowns – and dominates the US book market, especially with stores closed! pic.twitter.com/eQYI9CMhUX
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) June 4, 2020
“Today @amazon refused to publish my booklet about the coronavirus because it “did not comply” with their (undisclosed) guidelines,” continued Berenson. “This is outrageous censorship from a company that has gained hugely from lockdowns – and dominates the US book market, especially with stores closed!”
However, as of 3 p.m., Berenson posted an image which showed that his book had been recycled into the “publishing” stage of Amazon’s bookselling process.
WOW WOW WOW… KDP now reports the ebook as “Publishing”!
Thank you all for speaking out!
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) June 4, 2020
Berenson has faced criticism for being a vocal skeptic of state-mandated orders across the United States, which forced businesses to close and demanded residents wear face masks. He rose to national prominence by pointing out issues with prevailing narratives about the danger of the coronavirus and the need for restrictive social distancing measures.
On March 26, he noted that scientist and Imperial College author Neil Ferguson had revised his projected number of deaths from 500,000 to 20,000, a number which was relied on to guide lockdown measures in the country. On May 16, Berenson pointed out that 300 people had died from the coronavirus in Colorado, a number that far undershot initial projections in the state.
Musk has also been highly critical of government-ordered restrictions on movement and commerce, tweeting messages about freedom throughout the coronavirus. Musk discussed moving out of California with podcast host Joe Rogan after Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city would not fully reopen until a vaccine was developed to treat the virus.
