Russia’s Sber confirms list of over 250 books removed from online marketplace due to ‘LGBT propaganda’ law, including works by Dostoevsky and Stephen King
Russia’s Sber has confirmed that its online marketplace Megamarket has stopped selling more than 250 books to avoid violating the country’s law against “LGBT propaganda.”
The list of affected books was first published by journalist Alexander Plyushchev. Sber’s press service said in a statement on Tuesday that the “list in question does indeed exist” but that it was created over a year ago:
It was assembled back in December 2022 at the initiative of AITC [Association of Internet Trade Companies] by all participants in the book market due to the passage of the law banning LGBT propaganda on the Internet, in the media, in books, and in other sources. Megamarket participated in the discussion and the preparation of the list and, like all market participants, hid the items from our storefront.
The list published by Plyushchev is titled “Register of goods containing banned information (LGBT+)” and contains 252 books, including The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde; Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami; Netochka Nezvanova by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; It, Doctor Sleep, and Different Seasons by Stephen King; and Legacy by Vladimir Sorokin. It is unclear how Plyushchev obtained the list.
Readers of Meduza noted that some of the books on the list, such as The Picture of Dorian Gray and Norwegian Wood are still available on the Megamarket site.