A new PayPal policy update appears to authorize the company to pull a significant sum of money from the accounts of users who spread “misinformation.”
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Effective November 3, the new conditions will be added to the restricted activity section of the PayPal User agreement, the Daily Wire first reported. Changes include prohibitions on “the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials” that “promote misinformation.” While the prior policy already forbade “hate,” “intolerance,” and discrimination, the new one now also explicitly applies to specific “protected groups” and “individuals or groups based on protected characteristics.” Identities under this umbrella include race, religion, gender or gender identity, and sexual orientation.
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“The promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory” would also be deemed a violation of the policy and possible grounds for penalty,” according to the soon-to-be-launched acceptable use policy. The financial tech firm’s current rulebook doesn’t cite these activities.
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Breaking the rule against misinformation and hate speech “may subject you to damages, including liquidated damages of $2,500.00 U.S. dollars per violation, which may be debited directly from your PayPal account,” the company warns. In a user agreement, account holders accept and attest that the penalty is “presently a reasonable minimum estimate of PayPal’s actual damages” due to the expense the firm incurs by accounting for the violations as well as damage to its reputation.
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“Under existing law, PayPal has the ability as a private company to implement this type of viewpoint-discriminatory policy,” Aaron Terr, a senior program officer at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told the Daily Wire. “Whatever motivation PayPal has for establishing these vague new categories of prohibited expression, they will almost certainly have a severe chilling effect on users’ speech. As is often the case with ill-defined and viewpoint-discriminatory speech codes, those with unpopular or minority viewpoints will likely bear the brunt of these restrictions.”
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PayPal was founded by tech titan Peter Thiel, who has invested in a number of GOP rising stars and conservative entrepreneurial ventures. Ebay acquired the company in 2002 and has managed it since. In recent years, PayPal has been known to censor or deplatform organizations or individuals for certain political commentary, particularly that which is considered right-wing.
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It recently banned Gays Against Groomers, a group composed of LGBT-identifying people that claims to call attention to the sexualization and medicalization of children via gender ideology and the transgender movement, the Daily Wire noted. Minutes later, PayPal’s subsidiary Venmo reportedly barred the organization from access. Evolutionary biologist Colin Wright and journalist Ian Miles Cheong, who regularly expose the dangers of transgenderism for minors, have also been removed.
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