After facing backlash earlier this month, PayPal removed a line in its policy stating that spreading misinformation in particular would make users liable for a $2,500 fine. But users and politicians continue to demand clarity over which other kinds of speech will trigger the platform’s fines. Emily Mason in Forbes has more.
A part of PayPal’s user agreement that says any customer in violation of the platform’s “acceptable use” policy is subject to a $2,500 fine has been in place since at least 2013, according to the website’s archive. The fine had largely gone unnoticed until earlier this month when PayPal updated its acceptable use policy to state that messages which are “fraudulent, promote misinformation or are unlawful” are in violation of the policy and, by extension, subject to the fine. The “acceptable use” policy stated that determinations of which messages violated the policy would be made at “PayPal’s sole discretion”.
After drawing intense backlash from commentators stating that the policy could infringe upon free speech, the company rescinded the line in the policy citing misinformation and issued a statement saying it was posted in error on Monday, October 10th. “PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy,” a spokesperson for the company said. PayPal’s former president David Marcus was among dissenters, posting a tweet objecting to the policy update, which was amplified further when Elon Musk responded, “Agreed.”
“PayPal’s new AUP goes against everything I believe in,” Marcus’ tweet reads. “A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity.”
The note about misinformation was removed from the acceptable use terms, but the $2,500 penalty for violations remains, causing continued concern.
The acceptable use terms still include “the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory” under “prohibited activities” – where “hate” and “intolerance” are ill-defined terms often weaponised against the non-woke.
PayPal’s website also still lists “provide false, inaccurate or misleading information” under the “restricted activities” portion of its policy.
While violating the “restricted activities” portion does not result automatically in the $2,500 fine (as, confusingly, it’s different to the “acceptable use policy”) it may still result in charges or other sanctions.
“Concerned about this language still in PayPal’s terms of service – it’s vague and seems like it could be weaponised to control speech,” Representative Tom Emmer wrote in a tweet on Thursday.
It seems PayPal still has a long way to go if people are to feel they can trust it with their money again.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
I closed my PayPal account. No regrets there.
Misleading information…I was horrified to discover something that happened tonight, and started as a joke, has suddenly become rather frightening. My other half has recently discovered, via an unvaccinated friend, that some people become magnetic after covid jabs. He thought this was hilarious nonsense (he is twice jabbed – his choice entirely), until I offered a small magnet to his upper arms (2 x jabs, one each side) and it stuck! He was flabbergasted, horrified and alarmed. If you look this up on regular search engines all you will get are fact checks and debunking rubbish saying it is all a load of nonsense. I can tell you it is not. Humans are not meant to be magnetic. What have they done to us?
While not wishing to detract from your undoubted shock and anger Tob, this information has been circulating for months on the Web sites we tend to frequent.
I tend to the view that this magnet malarkey links to 5G.
You have not detracted, and yes, I too had seen it but didn’t give it much attention – there is just so much information out there and I honestly thought this sounded far fetched.
You might find this half hour video interesting then. It starts talking about magnetism, which they put down to graphene hydroxide, then it shows the experiment they did in the middle of nowhere where they detect MAC addresses in vaxxed people and also unvaxxed who recently had a PCR test. Even the deceased in a cemetery were found to emit these codes via bluetooth. Very strange.
https://rumble.com/v1gaz0x-bluetruth-scientific-evidence-for-nano-wireless-technology-in-the-vaxxinate.html
Thanks very much Mogs. I’ll have a look.
Yep it must be freaky to actually see it in action. Another conspiracy turned fact. I shared the hell out of this not long ago. So it does give credence to a lot of these people online then doesn’t it? I tried it on my husband but we only had a lowly fridge magnet and it didn’t work so I didn’t pursue it. Well surely that’s one sure fire way of putting somebody off getting further jabs! haha But seriously, how long since his last jab? I thought maybe there’s a cut-off point whereby the magnetism wears off but who knows? Especially now we know the gunk travels everywhere and spike is still being expressed many months post-injection.
https://www.notonthebeeb.co.uk/magnet-challenge
Well over a year since his last one, that’s the strange thing. No, he’s not having any more.
Well let’s not get carried away. The body produces electrical impulses, electrical impulses cause electromagnetic fields.
Some people, for example, cannot wear wrist watches because they stop due to the electric fields their body produces. Clearly it is stronger in some than others.
Maybe the CoVid jabs do produce a localised magnetising effect, but there are natural explanations too.
MAC addresses? Humans are very good at finding patterns in random phenomena… look into the embers of a fire and you will see a horse’s head, slice a tomato and Jesus will be there smiling at you.
I have closed my PayPal account so this question is largely academic and I am probably displaying some ignorance here; where exactly do I post “the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory” on the PayPal site?
I am not being facetious by the way.
Oh you post it on other sites, which may eventually come to their attention. And as part of their clampdown on wrong think – I think…
Thanks Hugh. That’s what I initially thought but I dismissed the notion.
So, PayPal will be monitoring billions of social media posts across the world and presumably will be able to identify each post and whether they have a PayPal account. Is that correct?
What sort of breaches of data protection would be required by PayPal in order to allow them to complete this surveillance?
This also suggest worldwide governmental connivance.
It’s more pernicious than you think. By using PayPal to subscribe to Daily Sceptics or The Conservative Woman, well known seething cesspits of hate, violence, racism, etc you are promoting these terrible things and particularly if you comment there.
Or, you might be selling a MAGA hat on eBay, or coffee mugs saying there are only two sexes, and using PayPal to collect.
Thanks JXB
Anyone who thinks these people, not just PayPal but allow them, are going to be pushed back easily is just not being realistic.
It’s going to be a long hard battle.
But it’s only a problem if you use these platforms – and that is not compulsory… yet.
The push-back is therefore easy, don’t use them.
I already cancelled my PayPal account that I had for nearly 20 years. It was convenient for ebay and some other sites. What can replace it (Google pay excepted)?
If you are looking for an alternative this may be helpful to you.
https://reclaimthenet.org/paypal-alternatives/
I also closed my PayPal account, but it took a lot of effort and three attempts, since I’d not used it for so long that my details were out of date, thereby restricting my access to the account.
I endured a long call with customer service to remove the blocks. They knew I was doing this only so I could close my account, and I made it very clear why. Once the blocks were removed, I closed it immediately.
As I’d not been a user for ages, there’s zero financial impact for them. But I figured I’d feature in their declining(?) user-count.
It was worth the whole rigamarole of reopening my account just I could close it properly and be able to flounce away making a dramatic gesture with my raised middle digit.
Have I missed mention on this site of Eventbrite, used by Toby Young to book FSU gigs? Here is a link to the Telegraph story: Eventbrite ‘silencing women’ by pulling ticket sales for gender-critical event (telegraph.co.uk)
Eventbrite was being used to sell tickets for a book launch organised by campaigners critical of “gender ideology”, led by barrister Sarah Phillimore and comedy writer Graham Linehan. However, the company’s “trust and safety” team refunded all tickets and removed the event listing from its website, stating that the planned gathering violated its policy on “hateful, dangerous or violent content”.
It’s not a Fine, it’s Theft
Delete your PayPal acct til they come to their senses.
Oh do shush! As in STFU FGS!!!
JP Sears’ hilarious skit on PayPal’s thought processes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuHX9s6ek2w
Many of these companies are being driven by governments threatening them. Most western governments are busily introducing censorship laws to try and control the narrative now widely expanded on social media sites. It was widely reported recently the Biden administrative had been actively directing social media sites what to censor. We do not know what forces are at play in the background. Many companies are just responding to government threats and new censorship laws.
Best just to dump this dodgy outfit.
Sometimes the best answer is the simplest.