PayPal announced and quickly backpedaled on a controversial new policy that would see the payment processor deducting $2,500 from users who violate their policies.
The leading payment processor (which Niche Gamer uses, too) said they would deduct a whopping $2,500 fine from users who spread what they deem as “misinformation” or spreading “hate,” or basically anything they say is “unfit for publication,” whatever that means.
Now deleted, the internal policy form has been preserved 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,” the policy reads. “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 company noted that they prohibit any of the following things:
PayPal prohibited content under the new policy
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.
This completely absurd policy nearly instantly got blowback from the public, including former key staff like David Marcus, their former president.
“It’s hard for me to openly criticize a company I used to love and gave so much to. But PayPal’s new AUP goes against everything I believe in,” Marcus said. “A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity.
PayPal’s attempted policy echoes a former partnership they made with the Anti-Defamation League, which they said was to combat “extremism” and “hate,” naturally without providing specifics.
One of the original founders of PayPal, our own spaceman son Elon Musk also replied to Marcus, saying that he agreed the new policy is bad.
Another company founder, David Sacks, also denounced the policy – going as far as saying you should “get your money out of PayPal right now.”
Days of public outcry from all ends of the political spectrum led to the company quickly backpedaling on the policy, saying it was announced by mistake.
“An AUP notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information,” PayPal said in a statement (via Breitbart). “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.”
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