Australian Cannabis Cookbook Censored By Facebook & ebay who say book is a “risk to our community”

Also  a great comment in the article on how the right can whinge about cancel culture whilst at the same time engaging in exactly the same thing.

 

The Byron Bay Echo reports

A local author has had her book censored by US tech behemoths Facebook and eBay after she tried to list her Cannabis Cookbook for sale on their respective websites.

First published in 1998, the 48-page Australian Cannabis Cookbook describes how to make your own marijuana recipes ‘for fun and relaxation, and how to prepare cannabis-based folk remedies for therapeutic use’.

 

It has been reprinted in a joint venture with the Nimbin Hemp Embassy, and the book outlines the history of cannabis and how it came to be outlawed, ‘as well as noting the current legalities around medicinal cannabis’. 

It also includes a contribution from the late, renowned journalist, Mungo MacCallum.

Author Eve Sinton told The Echo after trying to list her Cannabis Cookbook on Facebook Shopfront, ‘They cancelled it without telling me why, but I expect the word “Cannabis” triggered them’.

And after trying to list the book on eBay, she says the request was cancelled after five minutes, with her account then permanently suspended. 

eBay’s response was that they believe the activity is a ‘risk to our community’. 

The decision, says eBay customer help, is ‘final and cannot be appealed’.

Retired magistrate David Heilpern told The Echo, ‘It is hard to take such absurdity seriously – a cookbook!’ 

‘[It’s] commercial censorship gone mad. Cannabis is legal by prescription, now even in leaf, head and flower form, yet you cannot advertise a book to help consume it creatively. Next they’ll ban the little red school book… No, that was in the 1960s’.

Ms Sinton says, ‘The right wing rages about cancel culture, but as soon as someone being progressive about drug law reform and our right to use an ancient plant for our personal health benefit puts their head above the parapet, you get shot down. I had the cookbook listed on eBay for years in the early 2000s, no problem. So why cancel me now?’

‘The censorship also highlights how unaccountable corporations, that operate on budgets larger than many nation states, can suppress health information which has clear and proven benefits to societies’. 

In February, Facebook removed all news content from Australian users after talks broke down with the government over its media bargaining laws. The service was reinstated a week later.

The book is available at www.shop.hempembassy.net, The Echo office in Mullum and the Main Arm Store.

Source:  https://www.echo.net.au/2021/05/local-authors-cannabis-cookbook-censored-by-facebook-ebay/

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