What's going on? Amazon is openly selling books by coronavirus conspiracy theorists

According to foreign media VICE, Amazon is currently selling a book that forged the new coronavirus conspiracy theory in its "Science" category. The book is called "Plandemic."

As early as last year, the author of this book, Mikki Willis, released a 26-minute video "Plandemic". At that time, millions of people shared this fake documentary on social media, but the video was soon banned from dissemination by some mainstream platforms, which also made Mikki Willis the most banned documentary in history.

Since then, Mickey Willis has also released a 75-minute sequel "Plandemic: Indoctornation". The video stated that the media covered up the origin of the new coronavirus and claimed that there was no evidence that the virus was artificially created, so the virus was believed to be manufactured and spread.

Now, Mickey Willis has "returned" with a book called "Plandemic". Although he was previously widely criticized for allegedly spreading rumors about the new coronavirus, Amazon still listed his book in the "Basic Science" category under "Medical Books".

Currently, the book is priced at about $25 and will be officially released on August 17th.

According to the book's author, Mickey Willis, the book focuses on the pandemic and the "behind-the-scenes" story of the making of last year's video Plandemic, and he continues to spread rumors about the coronavirus conspiracy theory in his book.

It is worth noting that this is not the first book about coronavirus rumors that Amazon has allowed for sale. On the product page of the book "Plandemic", similar books by Joseph Mercola are also recommended. This person is the main advocate of the anti-vaccine movement, and he has made millions of dollars by selling his own health products.

Mercola is one of more than a dozen disinformation campaigners that the Center for Disinformation Research has been calling on social networks to remove from their platforms. Renee DiResta, a disinformation researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory, tweeted that using online platforms is a common tactic used by anti-vaccine scammers and others.

Although Amazon said that it has removed some false books that spread rumors about the COVID-19 pandemic since the outbreak, a survey conducted by the University of Washington in January this year found that when searching for vaccine-related terms on Amazon, more than 10% of the products were fake products that were re-listed.

Amazon has not yet responded to VICE News' request for comment.

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