Apple’s iron fist is starting to touch a nerve with publishers. First they selectively blocked a subscription based app, and now Apple has removed some of the sexually loaded content from their best of list on the book store. What’s going on guys? You have a romance section that’s fair game.

Gizmodo reports,

Apple is being accused of another case of puritanical censorship after allegedly taking out three adult-oriented books out of their bestseller list today. The top two books were written by Carl East, a 54-year-old writer responsible for seventy similar titles. The fifth position was occupied by Six Sexy Stories by Ginger Starr. According to the description, it contains “six ultra-erotic short stories for your reading pleasure! M/F, F/F, group scenes and light role play. All characters are 18+ and consenting adults. Not for readers under 18.

Given Apple’s obsession with maintaining a Disney-like, family-oriented image, it’s not surprising that these three books simultaneously disappeared from the top list, even while they haven’t been eliminated from the book store yet.

I can just type “sex” in the search bar and find plenty of romance novels (some with almost explicit covers) if I’m in a passionate mood. If this to protect children, you’re still doing a pretty bad job by dedicating a whole section of the App Store to this kind of material. How Apple chooses bestsellers should be made more transparent to publishers actively participating in the community, rather than shooting down material Apple “thinks” is inappropriate. Even if the books really suck, that’s not for Apple to decide.

[via Gizmodo]