'What Happened' News: Amazon Reviews of Hillary Clinton's Book Gets Deleted
Hillary Clinton's "What Happened" memoir, where the former State Secretary puts her recollections of the 2016 elections in book form, has been roundly trashed by online reviews. Amazon has stepped in, having apparently deleted more than 900 reviews of the book.
The book currently has 576 ratings that average 4.9 out of five on its Amazon listing as of this time. "What Happened" is what has been described by publisher Simon & Schuster as a candid account of Clinton's devastating election loss to Donald Trump, along with what the whole ordeal taught her, according to Fortune.
Gone are about 900 reviews that Amazon has deemed to be unreliable, as of this time.
Critics have mixed opinions on her book, with some calling it a "feminist manifesto," while other readers pick on its tendency to dwell on other players like Vladimir Putin and Bernie Sanders and their supposed role in her defeat.
Other Amazon raters, meanwhile, has reportedly put in one-star reviews even before the book was released on Tuesday, Sep. 12. None of these early reviews were marked as a "verified purchase," either, making it unlikely that they even bought the book in the first place.
Amazon has mechanisms in place to root out unreliable reviews. In the case of Clinton's book, unverified users have rated it an average of 1.9 stars, while those marked with "verified purchase" gave it an average of 4.9 stars out of five, according to Marketwatch.
The retailer's policy for dealing with reviewers, however, are not clearly laid out. "Amazon is not entirely transparent on how or why they do that," said Michael Parish Dudell of CouponFollow.
"Their terms of service are loose and allow for it, and you can guess they'll be doing this on big books where publisher is adding pressure," he added. For now, out of the 1,600 reviews that were posted by Wednesday, Sep.13, less than 600 remains.
