MarzAat

As an example of the increasing censorship by Big Tech, the mindlessness of its “community guidelines”, and why Amazon is a monopoly that is not your friend, I offer the case of my recent review of  Scottish Stories of Fantasy and Horror.

As I usually do, I posted a review whose text was very near what I posted here except for the following paragraph:

Haining is certainly right in his introductory notes to W. E. Aytoun’s “The Man in the Bell” in is reminiscent of the psychological horror pioneered by Edgar Allan Poe, specifically his “The Pit and the Pendulum”. Here a man is trapped in a bell tower as massive bells swing about creating a deafening roar. (However, I think Haining actually misattributed this story and that it was actually written by William Maginn.)

I received the following:

Thank you for submitting a customer review on Amazon. After carefully reviewing your submission, your review could not be posted to the website. While we appreciate your time and comments, reviews must adhere to the following guidelines:

I looked at said guidelines.

And responded to Amazon with:

Please explain what violated community standards in this review.

I see no profanity.

I see nothing libelous. (Peter Haining, incidentally, is dead, so he won’t be suing on my claim he misattributed a story’s author).

Was it the mention of African drums made of skulls? It’s an accurate description of John Keir Cross’s story.