Amazon Faces Questions Over Removal of Book by Conservative Author

A group of Republican senators is asking Amazon.com Inc. AMZN 1.17% to explain why it recently removed a book about transgender issues that had been on sale on the platform for about three years.

In a letter to Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos dated Wednesday, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Mike Braun of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri said a book by conservative scholar Ryan T. Anderson, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” was no longer available on Amazon nor on its Kindle and Audible platforms.

Amazon, they wrote, has been “unable to provide a sufficient explanation” as to how the book “supposedly violated a vague, undefined ‘offensive content’ standard.”

An Amazon spokeswoman didn’t have a comment regarding the letter. The company declined to provide specifics regarding its decision, saying in a statement earlier Wednesday that it reserved the right not to sell certain content based on its content guidelines for books.