Amazon criticised for selling Christchurch gunman’s hate manifesto

The manifesto was recreated in a 74-page paperback by a publisher who was permitted to sell it on Amazon
AFP/Getty Images

Amazon has been criticised for selling the hate-filled manifesto by the white supremacist responsible for the Christchurch mosque massacre.

Brenton Tarrant , 28 — accused of gunning down 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand — published The Great Replacement online, minutes before the March 15 attack.

It was recreated in a 74-page paperback by a publisher who was permitted to sell it on Amazon. It is understood to have been on sale on the site since March 23 and was available for four days until the Standard alerted the retail giant and it was quickly withdrawn.

Brendan Cox, the husband of Labour MP Jo Cox who was murdered by a white supremacist in 2016, criticised the company for allowing the book’s sale.

He said: “Promoting the ramblings of the New Zealand terrorist is bad enough, profiting from them is disgraceful.”

Mr Cox, a co-founder of Survivors Against Terror, added: “It’s time tech giants use their own technology to take down these attempts at propagating hatred.”

The Standard found a version of the manifesto on Amazon by entering Tarrant’s name. A reporter was able to click on the “look inside” tab to read, free of charge, two pages of the introduction.

The manifesto was published in French on March 23 by a publisher Bibliothèque Dissidente, which has also published books by pro-fascist writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline and far-Right activist Jacques Ploncard d’Assac. Tarrant has been charged with murder and is likely to face more charges when he reappears in court on April 5.

An Amazon spokesman said: “The item was removed from the site once the Evening Standard made us aware of it.”

While confirming their business model was to take a percentage of product sales on its platform, he would not say if Amazon made a profit from sales of this particular book.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in