First Goodreads, Now Amazon and Kobo...What's Next?

So, as I'm sure many of you have heard now, Goodreads has started to take down shelves and reviews that they deem offensive. Or reviews and shelves that have nothing to do with the book and are basically "hate" towards the author. They've started censoring out honest opinions and they've deleted many reviews and shelves that they shouldn't have in my opinion. It's ridiculous.

Now, Kobo and Amazon are removing self-published titles they deem abusive/offensive. A lot of it is erotica.
Well, Kobo has just decided to remove ALL self-published titles at this moment in time. Including books that are published through Smashwords.

I'm pretty sure this an email. I got it from First Class Books FB Page.

Whilst Kobo removing these books doesn't affect me too much it still pisses me off. It pisses me off because if I didn't have this blog and the FB page, then I probably wouldn't have known about it, and I have one title currently published through Smashwords. It doesn't affect my buying of books, but it affects my already published story and I wasn't told about it. Which, you know, all authors should have been at least emailed about it. Even if it was just an impersonal collective email.

Think about how many authors don't know about this? How many readers don't know about this. It pisses me off.

WHSmith (http://whsmith.co.uk/) have completely shut down their website due to this. And if you follow that link it will lead you to the statement they give for temporarily shutting down the website.

I understand how some books are very offensive. Some self-published titles contain...a little too much abuse wise for some people maybe, and maybe some contain...things that some people may not like, but that's why there are warnings.

I don't read beastiality books, I don't like to read books that contain rape (there are some books that will only contain the subject, I don't mind those, but I do not want details, that makes me feel sick), and I will only read abusive books if I know there is some kind of good that comes out of it. Like, a person recovering. Or sometimes I want to read a story that will make me think. But, usually, there are warnings. So, I don't see why all of these books have to be removed. Because a lot of these books that get removed are probably going to be run of the mill BDSM books. Which is both unfair to BDSM readers and those in the BDSM community.

Some of these erotica books that are getting deleted, they open peoples eyes to a whole new world, and then people come along and they're trying to censor us.

Amazon doesn't seem to be removing ALL self published books, but they are removing several that they thing violate a certain code.

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2013/10/13/amazon-bn-whsmith-now/#.UlxSmVDWRFY

This is the best article on the story that I have read. The removed Selena Kitt books that nowhere near violated any of their stupid codes.
I can understand removing a few books maybe. Like, so really, really bad ones. But, really? They're not doing that. They're removing books left and right just because of a title, or a keyword. GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

The books that glorify rape (not rape play) I can understand. Some of the non-pseudo incest books I can understand. Erotica books with anybody under 18 I can understand. But, otherwise? It's just stupid. Plus, you can find stuff much worse for free on websites anyway. So, it's pointless.

I also love how they only delete self-published author's books. Like, they're not going to remove books like Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. And they shouldn't (that book is amazing,) but they also shouldn't be removing erotica written by self-published authors.

Well, I'm angry about all this censoring, so sorry if this doesn't make sense, but there are references to help.
This has been a bad month for readers and writers alike.