PayPal on Oct. 8 said it was not implementing a new policy that would have enabled the company to seize money from users who allegedly promote “misinformation” or “hate.”
“An AUP notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information. PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy,” a PayPal spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
“Our teams are working to correct our policy pages. We’re sorry for the confusion this has caused,” the spokesperson added.
The company in September announced that it was amending its acceptable use policy, or AUP.
The policy, due to take effect in November, said that users may not use PayPal to for 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.”
For each violation, PayPal says users are subject to repercussions. Those include “liquated damages” of $2,500 per violation. The money will be taken directly from a person’s PayPal account.
Users were directed to PayPal’s user agreement, which states in part that PayPal can take a number of actions if users participate in restricted activities, such as holding their money in balance indefinitely. It also says that “you will be liable to PayPal for the amount of PayPal’s damages caused by your violation of the Acceptable Use Policy” at the amount of $2,500 per violation.
That money will cover internal administrative costs for PayPal to monitor and track violations and damage to PayPal’s brand, among other costs, according to the agreement.
Scores of people noticed the pending update in recent days and many announced on social media they would be closing their accounts.
“Seriously, close your PayPal account immediately if they don’t reverse this today,” Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, said.
“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. A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity,” added David Marcus, a former president of PayPal.
Still, others had suggested the policy was not a problem.
“PayPal has a tiny clause forbidding spreading fraudulent information or misinformation on the platform. Ya know—so people can’t sell you a magic bean that cures cancer or anything,” Keith Farrell, an author, wrote. “And conservatives are out here telling on themselves, acting like this about them!”
Article cross-posted from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times.
PayPal has again exposed themselves. Delete all Pay Pal accounts they are not needed.
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To late…after 15 years i cancelled last night!
Of course, men will still be getting pregnant and the greatest threat is Co2, but that’s different.
Keith Ferrell is either lying or not thinking clearly when he claims the policy was simply about preventing fraud. If that were the case the language would have used the word “fraud” instead of the nebulous and malleable “misinformation.”
From the article: “An AUP notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information. PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy,”
Translation: we never anticipated the massive number of PayPal account closures from both “sides” of the aisle. Looking at account closures projected to exceed 50% of our accounts given the initial response, we have decided that going broke sounds worse than going woke.” Chaim Goldberg (or whoever it was).
Anyone who has ever worked for any company knows very well that this kind of thing could never happen without every layer of management approving it, and in this case it would have to go to the very top.
Now, if they want us to take them seriously, fire the person or persons responsible for even trying to implement that.
One display of untrustworthiness from any company will always be in the consumers mind. There have been enough examples of the truth of that so that I don’t have to point out any of the businesses who have done so and have failed or are in the process of failing.
That is an awful lot of words in the text quoted from PayPal to be an “error that included incorrect information”.
I call BS on their explanation.
Too late. I canceled earlier today, and I’m keeping it canceled. I’ve had my account since 2005
shows you where their heads are at, this didn’t just happen
For decades the left, the media, and academia have been touting claims that “perception is reality,” “there is no objective truth—just your truth/my truth,” “tolerance for all, no matter how vulgar and perverted,” and my most hated phrase, It’s all good.” So if there is no objective truth in the first place and “it’s all good,” then how can anything written be “misinformation.”?
I just closed my Ebay account because PayPal still acts as their main merchant account for credit cards transactions.
I get so giddy every time I remember the day I seized paypal’s money and never gave it back knowing there was nothing those thieves could do about it. I then closed my account and not only did I take from their sorry azses, I never gave a penny to them through fees, again. Hope you liked it paypal! You POS.
The misinformation issue was bad enough, but there was more. You would no longer be allowed to use the platform to purchase completely legal products- cigarette purchases would no longer be allowed. Also ammunition, firearms and certain parts of firearms. All of these things are legal, and I might not personally purchase any of them, but I will not patronize a platform that that makes arbitrary decisions about what legal transactions I will be ‘allowed’ to make.
deleted all things paypal, including acct. getting to phone now.