Woke Disaster: PayPal U-Turns on Plan to Fine Users $2,500 for ‘Misinformation’

PayPal CEO Dan Schulman at Billionaire Summer Camp
Drew Angerer/Getty

In a quickly-reversed policy move, the web’s leading payments processor, PayPal, announced it would deduct $2,500 from users who violates its acceptable use policy, which includes bans on spreading “misinformation,” “hate,” or anything else the company deemed “unfit for publication.”

Facing widespread public outcry, including from the company’s own former leadership team, PayPal quickly withdrew the policy, but it can still be viewed on internet archives.

PayPal CEO Dan Schulman

PayPal CEO Dan Schulman (Drew Angerer/Getty)

Via Archive.org:

You are independently responsible for complying with all applicable laws in all of your actions related to your use of PayPal’s services, regardless of the purpose of the use. In addition, you must adhere to the terms of this Acceptable Use Policy. Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy constitutes a violation of the PayPal User Agreement and 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(s) as outlined in the User Agreement (see “Restricted Activities and Holds” section of the PayPal User Agreement).

The prohibited behaviors included any activities that:

involve the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials that, in PayPal’s sole discretion, (a) are harmful, obscene, harassing, or objectionable, (b) depict or appear to depict nudity, sexual or other intimate activities, (c) depict or promote illegal drug use, (d) depict or promote violence,  criminal activity, cruelty, or self-harm (e) depict, promote, or incite hatred or discrimination of protected groups or of individuals or groups based on protected characteristics (e.g. race, religion, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.) (f) present a risk to user safety or wellbeing, (g) are fraudulent, promote misinformation, or are unlawful, (h) infringe the privacy, intellectual property rights, or other proprietary rights of any party, or (i) are otherwise unfit for publication.

The financial giant’s decision led to widespread outcry, including from PayPal’s former president, David Marcus.

“It’s hard for me to openly criticize a company I used to love and gave so much to,” said Marcus. “But PayPal’s new AUP goes against everything I believe in. A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity.”

Elon Musk, one of the original founders of PayPal, chimed in to agree.

“Get your money out of paypal right now,” said David Sacks, another of the original PayPal founders.

PayPal’s policy did not last long — just a few days after the news spread on social media, and weeks before the policy was set to take effect, the company claimed the policy was announced by mistake.

“An AUP notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information,” said PayPal in a statement released over the weekend. “PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy. We’re sorry for the confusion this has caused.”

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.

 

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