PayPal walked back a new policy announcement that users who advance “misinformation” could face fines of $2,500 per offense, saying it was all a mistake after The Daily Wire called attention to the chilling scheme.
The financial services company, which has repeatedly deplatformed organizations and individual commentators for their political views, announced Saturday, one day after The Daily Wire story broke, that the announcement went out in error.
“An [Accepted Use Policy] notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information,” a PayPal spokesperson said. “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.”
The original announcement said PayPal would expand its “existing list of prohibited activities” on November 3. Among the changes were prohibitions on using the platform for “the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials” that “promote misinformation” or “present a risk to user safety or wellbeing.” Users were also barred under the policy from “the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory.”
Before posting its initial story, The Daily Wire reached out to PayPal for definitions of the added terms but received no response.
The report sparked outrage online, with many people tweeting pledges to dump the online payment facilitator. Particularly chilling was the fact that the policy said determinations of what could be deemed “misinformation,” or a threat to the “wellbeing” of other users was to be at the “sole discretion” of PayPal.
The now-aborted policy said users could be liable for “damages” — including the removal of $2,500 “debited directly from your PayPal account” per offense.
“Under existing law, PayPal has the ability as a private company to implement this type of viewpoint-discriminatory policy,” Aaron Terr, a senior program officer at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told The Daily Wire.
“Whatever motivation PayPal has for establishing these vague new categories of prohibited expression, they will almost certainly have a severe chilling effect on users’ speech. As is often the case with ill-defined and viewpoint-discriminatory speech codes, those with unpopular or minority viewpoints will likely bear the brunt of these restrictions.”
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