Posted on 10/27/2022 9:14:45 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Financial Twitter is again abuzz over rumors that PayPal, the world’s third-largest payments platform, has reinstated a controversial policy to fine its users for “misinformation.”
The uproar, however—which has drawn in many popular crypto influencers—appears to be over old news.
BREAKING: 🛑 PayPal has brought back the $2,500 fine for speech they don’t like.
First they said it was a mistake.
Now they sneak it back in with different language.
🛑 DO NOT ACCEPT THIS! 🛑
— Bitcoin Archive 🗄🚀🌔 (@BTC_Archive) October 27, 2022
At issue is a passage within PayPal’s “Restricted Activities” section of its user agreement, which states that users who violate its Acceptable Use Policy are liable to pay a minimum of $2,500 in damages.
The Acceptable Use Policy includes a list of “prohibited activities,” which include transactions related to “the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory.”
Twitter user Jeremy Knauff called attention to the passage on Tuesday, claiming that PayPal had effectively reinstated a “misinformation” clause that attracted widespread criticism earlier this month—a clause that PayPal retracted after saying it had been published “in error.”
Remember the draconian clause PayPal added to its TOS a couple of weeks ago that would enable them to steal $2,500 from your account every time you post anything they don't like? Well, after the widespread criticism died down, they put it right back in.https://t.co/QwUsB56p0L
— Jeremy Knauff (@jeremyknauff) October 25, 2022
“The term ‘other forms of intolerance’ is so broad that it legally gives the company grounds to claim that anyone not fully supporting any particular position is engaging in ‘intolerance’ because the definition of the word is the unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one’s own,” claimed Knauff in an article on the matter.
In reality, however, the “misinformation” clause was not reinstated, nor have any other changes been made to the policy page since PayPal’s retraction a week ago.
As detailed by KellyKga on Twitter, the controversial passage that was published on October 7—and removed the next day—sought to prevent users from using PayPal for activities that involve “the sending, posting, or publication” of content that met certain criteria.
Listed among those criteria were content materials that are, according to PayPal, “harmful, obscene, harassing, or objectionable,” or which “promote misinformation,” among other things. This entire passage had been removed from the Acceptable Use Policy and is now only available through internet archives.
By contrast, the clause that Knauff and others took issue with this week isn’t a new policy at all. Both the list of prohibited activities and the associated $2,500 fine have existed since September 2021.
It seems the $2,500 in damages section and the long and broad list of prohibited activities dates back to September 2021 (last year). https://t.co/BgoQjgX6IC pic.twitter.com/VZGoElFcqB
— Kelley K (@KelleyKga) October 27, 2022
Yet the story gets even more complicated: While Paypal’s current Acceptable Use Policy contains no mention of “misinformation,” its user agreement essentially does—and has since at least February 12, 2022.
The agreement reads that PayPal users may not “provide false, inaccurate or misleading information,” in connection with PayPal, its website, services, or “third parties.” Those who do so may see their accounts suspended, limited, or closed, and PayPal may take legal action.
In short, no surprise changes have been made to PayPal’s policy this week. While the company does levy punishments toward users for certain forms of “misleading statements” under its user agreement (and has for months), a $2,500 fine is not explicitly one of them.
Closed and deleted my account with PayPal
SO... just to be safe, completely avoid lying, woke PayPal.
Musk is gonna have to buy it back.
I checked and venmo is owned by PayPal and they modified the venmo terms of service to match paypals, so deleted and closed my venmo account as well
You may not be able to sell a book and get paid via PayPal, apparently.
I wonder if Joe Biden for President is able to receive PayPal donations.
MORE TWEETS FOLLOW...WITH SCREEN SHOT.
27 Oct: Tweet: Charlie Kirk
HOLY CRAP
Fox10 in Phoenix—Kari Lake’s former station—just displayed a graphic showing Katie Hobbs won the Arizona governor’s race 12 DAYS BEFORE THE ELECTION
https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1585810763137970177?cxt=HHwWgsCjnZaf94EsAAAA
MORE TWEETS FOLLOW...WITH SCREEN SHOT.
27 Oct: Tweet: Charlie Kirk
HOLY CRAP
Fox10 in Phoenix—Kari Lake’s former station—just displayed a graphic showing Katie Hobbs won the Arizona governor’s race 12 DAYS BEFORE THE ELECTION
https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1585810763137970177?cxt=HHwWgsCjnZaf94EsAAAA
“Venmo is an American mobile payment service founded in 2009 and owned by PayPal since 2012.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venmo
What time is it?
Antitrust time!
apology for double post.
apology for double post.
Requires the same jackasses saying they’re going to jail us for “election misinformation” to handle those anti trust cases....
Dear Mr. Al Gore:
It has come to our attention that people are using Paypal to buy copies of your book....
We went from “this isn’t happening, the policy was published in error” to “this is nothing new and it’s good that it has been there for ages” so seamlessly it’s almost as if they don’t care that we know they’re lying.
“election misinformation”
If they are going to jail people for that the windows of every capitol building would need bars.
in a fair and logical country, yes.
We do not have one.
we’re watching the minority(who claim to be the majority) harass, jail, rob, and kill the majority(who they claim to be the minority.)
We have a three tiered Justice system
top if your a Democrat Politican
middle if you’re one of their enforcers or a Democrat aligned Republican
Bottom tier if your enforcers.
This is why I do not believe anybody really rescinds their policies. They just go dark about them.
Um, there has always been anti fraud and anti scammer language in the user agreement.
How would you word it to let people know that they can’t use false or misleading language to sell a pig in a poke?
I should open my account again, so I can cancel it
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