WHSmith is to reopen its website within the next 48 hours, it is understood, after it was taken down to remove pornographic books.

The bookseller and stationery retailer has been offline for four days, since it emerged WHSmith was selling self-published pornographic titles on its website through its e-books partner Kobo. The titles glorified rape, bestiality, and incest.

Currently, if a customer clicks on to the WHSmith website they are met with a holding page, explaining its decision to take its site down.  

A statement from WHSmith said: “We are currently reviewing the ranges on our website and until we are confident that completely robust screening processes are in place to filter out inappropriate content, our website will not go live.

“For clarity, we are working closely with our eBook partner, Kobo, however we are also ensuring that our own filters from the Kobo feed are adequate.  We are close to completing our content review and expect the website will be live again shortly.”

It is an industry-wide issue after Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers were also found to be selling pornographic e-books last week.

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