World

Elon Musk called for Amazon’s break-up after an author couldn’t publish book

Prashasti Awasthi Mumbai | Updated on June 05, 2020 Published on June 05, 2020

Tesla co-founder Elon Musk

Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk called for the dissolution of Amazon.com Inc after an author complained about Amazon when he could not self publish his book on the world’s largest online retailer, Reuters reported.

Musk tweeted: "This is insane @JeffBezos." He added in another tweet: "Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!" Musk added in a second tweet.

Musk does not have the legal authority to break up Amazon.

While Amazon chose to look beyond Musk’s call for dissolution, the tech giant responded to the complaint and said the book in question, by author Alex Berenson, had been blocked in error and was now available for sale via its Kindle e-reading service. The decision to greenlight the book's sale was not due to Musk, Amazon said.

Amazon further clarified that the retailer had taken action because the 22-page book did not comply with guidelines that Amazon did not specify, adding, "we are referring customers to official sources for health information about the virus." Berenson's book is titled, "Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns: Part 1: Introduction and Death Counts and Estimates."

After Amazon approved the book's sale, he tweeted, "thanks to @elonmusk and everyone who helped.

Published on June 05, 2020

A letter from the Editor


Dear Readers,

The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.

Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.

In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.

We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.

But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.

I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.

A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!

Support Quality Journalism
When Covid-19 vaccine becomes available, let’s make sure it reaches everyone: UN chief