New PayPal rule: The company can take $2,500 from your account for sharing misinformation
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A little less than a week before the midterm elections in November, a new PayPal account update will take effect that has sent the internet into an uproar — and also drawn condemnation from PayPal’s former president David Marcus.
What’s happening: PayPal is updating its acceptable use policy, with the update taking effect on November 3. You might say to yourself, well, I don’t use my account with the financial services company for anything improper or illegal, so what do I have to worry about? Here’s why that might not necessarily be true:
PayPal says it’s expanding its existing list of prohibited activities to include the “sending, posting, or publication of messages, content, or materials that meet certain criteria.” The full details are explained right here, but PayPal is basically set to start levying a fine when users are found to have shared “misinformation” or promoted content that’s deemed to be “discriminatory” or promoting “hate.”
The list of prohibited activities is broader than that, but it’s especially the prohibition on sharing “misinformation” that’s giving many people pause. Moreover, PayPal gives itself the right to debit $2,500 from your PayPal account for each violation of this new, expanded acceptable use policy.
Marcus, for his part, described this new policy as “insanity.” A tweet from him on Saturday, October 8, reads in part: “A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with.” Venture capitalist David Sacks chimed in, in response to Marcus: “Get your money out of PayPal right now.”
As word of this PayPal change began to spread over the weekend, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr described what’s happening here as “Orwellian.”
“PayPal reserves the right to take your money if you post a message that PayPal decides is “misinformation,’” he tweeted. “This is why it is so vital that state and federal legislatures pass laws that prohibit discrimination by tech companies and protect free speech.”
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