TIRELESS COMRADE WINSTON SMITH STILL BRAVELY TOILING AWAY IN THE MIGHTY OFFICES OF THE MINISTRY OF TRUTH! (Err, and also Amazon as well.) Roald Dahl ebooks ‘force censored versions on readers’ despite backlash.

Owners of Roald Dahl ebooks are having their libraries automatically updated with the new censored versions containing hundreds of changes to language related to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race.

Readers who bought electronic versions of the writer’s books, such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, before the controversial updates have discovered their copies have now been changed.
Puffin Books, the company which publishes Dahl novels, updated the electronic novels, in which Augustus Gloop is no longer described as fat or Mrs Twit as fearfully ugly, on devices such as the Amazon Kindle.

Having previously trashed their once excellent Prime Music app in the fall of last year, Amazon now seems deterimed to tank the popularity of their Kindle app as well for some reason. I love the Kindle’s ease of use and portability, but the Dahl story is a reminder of the importance of owning physical versions of books, music, movies, and TV series.