LONDON: The terrorist manifesto of Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik was reportedly listed online by UK book chain Waterstones, an article in The Guardian said.
Breivik killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, publishing a 1,500-page far-right manifesto online shortly before carrying out the series of atrocities.
The document relays his motivations, including Islamophobia and hard-line anti-immigration stance.
Tech Against Terrorism, a UN-supported organization, discovered that the manifesto, titled “2083 — A European Declaration of Independence,” was listed on the Waterstones website in three parts.
The UK’s biggest book chain also owns the smaller Foyles and Hatchards booksellers.
However, a Waterstones spokesperson said: “These titles were never stocked in our bookshops and were not available to order on our website or in shops. At no point were these titles part of our curation.”
Experts told The Guardian that Breivik’s manifesto violates UK anti-terrorism laws, with the book having been used as evidence of encouraging terrorism after a copy was found in possession of Sam Imrie, a Scottish national who was later convicted.
The version listed by Waterstones contained an ISBN and was published by an Estonian company, said Tech Against Terrorism.
But the book chain said that it had no trading relationship with the Estonian publisher, and that it received mass listing information through Nielsen Book Data, an aggregator.
The listing information is manually checked to remove unacceptable titles, the Waterstones spokerson said, adding: “With the size of the catalog running into the tens of millions, inevitably some escape both Nielsen and our scrutiny. As soon as these are noticed, they are removed.”
Tech Against Terrorism executive director Adam Hadley said: “This discovery highlights an ambiguity in existing and proposed content moderation legislation.
“To what extent would either the Terrorism Act or the forthcoming online safety bill cover books sold on mainstream websites?”