Interestingly, that the same spokesman did not respond to its follow-up requests for clarification on the cause of the error.

While the company may not want to officially sway from its oddly chosen and meat-oriented adjective (ham-fisted?), someone outside of the public relations wing is providing a bit more detailed information. An Amazon.com employee described as working "closely with the systems involved in the glitch" that an Amazon employee from France had "filled out a field incorrectly," causing the "adult" setting to be toggled on all of the books' profiles.

"People got pulled away from their Easter thing when this whole thing broke," the employee, who spoke to the paper on the condition of anonymity, is quoted as saying. "It was just a screw-up."