Kobo Speaks Out on the Removal of Self-Published Titles from its Store

Photo courtesy of ebookbotics.com As angry accusations sailed across the cybersphere about the deletion of self-published titles from Kobo’s, Amazon’s, and even Barnes and Noble’s websites amid an atrocious crisis of judgment that caused WHSmith to remove content and close its e-store, more than one indie author took to social media to hurl insults about the censorship involved. Kobo’s head of the Writing Life self-publishing platform issued this statement to its authors only moments ago: “To our Kobo Writing Life and self-publishing partners: As you may be aware, there has been a significant amount of negative media attention in the UK regarding offensive material that became available across a number of eBook platforms. Kobo was included in the reports from media and we are taking immediate action to resolve an issue that is the direct result of a select few authors and publishers violating Kobo's content policies. In order to address the situation Kobo is taking the following steps: 1. We are removing titles in question from the Kobo platform. 2. We are quarantining and reviewing titles to ensure that compliance to our policies is met by all authors and publishers. We will ensure that content meeting the policy is made available online as soon as possible. 3. We are reviewing our policies and procedures to implement safeguards that will ensure this situation does not happen in the future. We are working hard to get back to business as usual, as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter. Our goal at Kobo is not to censor material; we support freedom of expression. Further, we want to protect the reputation of self-publishing as a whole. You have our promise that we will do all we can to ensure the exceptions that have caused this current situation will not have a lasting effect on what is an exciting new channel that connects Readers to a wealth of books. Sincerely, Mark Lefebvre Director, Kobo Writing Life” Hopefully this statement will be enough to assure authors that their contributions are valid and appreciated, but that the protection of young readers has to take precedence over freedom of expression. According to the statement, Kobo is at work even now to replace the titles that have been removed. Kobo Speaks Out on the Removal of Self-Published Titles from its Store is a post from: E-Reader News

URL: http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/kobo-speaks-out-on-the-removal-of-self-published-titles-from-its-store?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kobo-speaks-out-on-the-removal-of-self-published-titles-from-its-store