Former PayPal officials, known as the “PayPal Mafia,” have criticized the payments giant for its debanking policies of the last times. One co-founder called the funding freeze “totalitarian,” while another compared it to an episode of Black Mirror.
Despite becoming a crypto-friendly company in recent years, The payments tech giant has grabbed a lot of headlines and criticism for its banning practices, which supposedly involve a rather abrupt process of freezing funds, fines, and cold negotiations to unlock its users’ accounts for various reasons..
Peter Thiel, PayPal’s co-founder in 1998 and CEO until 2002, suggested to The Free Press on December 14 that the company’s vision has moved significantly away from its initial goal of giving citizens around the world greater control over their money.
“If you freeze the online forms of your money, that’s like destroying people financially, limiting their ability to exercise their political voice,” Thiel said.adding that:
“Destroying people economically seems like something much more totalitarian to me.”
Thiel is colloquially known as the “don” of the notorious “PayPal mafia”a group of founders and former employees – like Elon Musk – who have since gone on to found or work at other big tech companies.
Another member of the PayPal Mafia and the company’s first COO, David Sacks, has also been manifested against PayPal’s deplorable practices in recent years.
In a conversation with The Free Press, Sacks argued that, Under current CEO Dan Schulman, PayPal is trying to capitalize on the woke culture movement by banning access to people with opposing views.s.
“The CEO [Schulman] has gotten every woke award there is to win,” said Sacksand added:
“It’s a symbiotic relationship: he puts his agenda into action, and in return, they give him prizes, furthering his rise up the corporate totem pole of woke capitalism.”
To list just a few of PayPal’s notable policies: It has shut down accounts linked to the Freedom Phone startup, focused on uncensored freedom; the news website Consortium News; the Free Speech Union; and the skeptical blocking blog The Daily Skeptic. All of these outlets could be seen as leaning politically to the right, or at least holding alternative views.
In response to the article, Musk, the current CEO of Twitter and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, said the platform has become an episode of Black Mirror, a British television series that often features some kind of dystopian future in which people are controlled by technology. technology.
PayPal has become a Black Mirror episode
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 13, 2022
PayPal has become an episode of Black Mirror
Given the threat of bans for some, Cryptocurrency advocates have, of course, pushed the “Bitcoin fixes this” narrative due to the decentralization of the network and resistance to censorship..
Banks can lock your accounts…
PayPal could fine you for misinformation…
Governments can print their way to hyperinflation, over-spend, and steal through taxation…
But no matter what, bitcoin will be here waiting to serve you. pic.twitter.com/0U2loosvYw
—Chris Dunn (@ChrisDunnTV) December 7, 2022
Banks can block your accounts… PayPal could fine you for misinformation… Governments can print their way to hyperinflation, overspend and steal through taxes… But no matter what, bitcoin will be here waiting to serve you. pic.twitter.com/0U2loosvYw
In October, PayPal also introduced fines of USD 2,500 for users who “promote misinformation” or disseminate material that presents risks to “the safety and well-being of users”, both defined in ambiguous terms..
The measure was received with an intense negative reaction from the community and big personalitiesincluding members PayPal mob members like Musk and former PayPal chairman David Marcus. On October 11, PayPal quickly backed down from that policy, chalking it up to an internal error..
Nevertheless, some skeptics believe the policy has crept back into the company’s user agreement and acceptable use policy.
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