New PayPal Policy Allows Them To Impose $2,500 Fine On Users They Feel ‘Promote Misinformation’

This new PayPal policy takes censorship to a whole new level. One of the largest financial services companies available for public use, PayPal has recently faced severe backlash for deplatforming individuals and organizations who say things with which the radical woke leftist company does not agree or which generally contradict the mainstream leftist narratives.

Notably, they recently shut down the PayPal and Venmo accounts of the outspoken activist organization Gays Against Groomers, citing their favorite arbitrary catch-all of violating PayPal’s terms of service. Really, all they did was say and stand for things PayPal doesn’t like, and PayPal didn’t want the public to be able to financially support the group. Likewise, accounts linked to Toby Young’s nonprofit called Free Speech Union were recently suspended with a similarly vague explanation.

PayPal states that beginning on November 3, 2022,

“We are expanding the existing list of prohibited activities to include the sending, posting, or publication of messages, content, or materials that meet certain criteria.”

Oh, joy. Even more things people aren’t allowed to say if they want to be able to use PayPal. The updates include the “sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials that, in PayPal’s sole discretion:”

• “present a risk to user safety or wellbeing,” or
• “promote misinformation.”

Key words being “PayPal’s sole discretion.” PayPal can arbitrarily decide whether something is a risk to user safety or wellbeing, or constitutes misinformation. Think of all the things the last 2.5 or the last 5.5 years that have been labeled a risk to safety/wellbeing or misinformation, and which have ultimately been proven to be neither of those things.

And if you break their rules, PayPal can sanction user accounts, including the automatic withdrawal of $2,500 “debited directly from your PayPal account” to cover what they say is “presently a reasonable minimum estimate of PayPal’s actual damages.” These “damages” being the cost to the company for employees to track user violations of policy and any potential backlash that affects the company’s public image.

While private companies certainly have the right to set terms of service and policies, these companies have become far too powerful. As with social media platforms, which essentially act as the de facto town square, partisan and politically biased company policies harm public discourse and prevent certain organization from reasonable functioning in society. How terrifying that a major financial services organization is expanding their power to censor the public and influence what people are allowed to say and stand for.