(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) An online bookstore that advertised itself as being pro-free speech removed books from conservative authors after it received backlash from leftist activists.
Television host and activist RuPaul opened the “all-inclusive” online bookstore Allstora with LGBT advocate and author Eric Cervini and drag performer Adam Powell, according to the Daily Wire.
The site advertised that they would carry books from all kinds of authors. Initially, that was true because the store was selling books that ranged from the infamous Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” to the coming-of-age book “Gender Queer” that contained graphic sexual scenes.
“We’re a marketplace for all books and all stories, with a focus on elevating marginalized voices. You may find books you disagree with. Allstora has made the decision to carry all books [and] censorship of any book, perspective or story is incompatible with the survival of democracy,” the store previously stated.
The Mary Sue also reported on the bookstore defending free speech.
“Banning books is never the answer. We cannot fight the ideologies of hate if we lack the ability to study, understand, and react to them. We do that by reading books,” the bookstore wrote on its website before removing the message after the backlash.
As expected, the far-left activists didn’t want the bookstore to sell books by Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Matt Walsh, Riley Gaines and Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik, among others, which resulted in the backlash.
At first, the founders of the website promised to create “a community-led flagging system for titles that are contrary to our core values” and subsequently “[donate] all proceeds from these titles to fight book bans,” but that wasn’t enough for the activists.
The founders eventually relented and removed all free speech messaging from the page after critics have been railing for three days against Allstora for selling “homophobic,” “transphobic,” “anti-woke” and “Nazi” books.
The Daily Wire also reported that many of the books by conservative authors were removed from the page, while some other titles remained available.
