(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) PayPal walked back a shocking policy announcement that users who are responsible for what they deem to be “misinformation” could face fines of up to $2,500 per offense, claiming it was a mistake after the a report went viral.
The financial services company, which is guilty of deplatforming organizations and individuals for their political views, announced that the policy change was an error a day after The Daily Wire reported the story.
“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 the company would be expanding its “existing list of prohibited activities in early November.
The changes included the prohibition of “sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials” that “promote misinformation” or “present a risk to user or safety wellbeing.”
Users were also barred from “the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory.”
Deliberations were to be made at the “sole discretion” of PayPal, and the user may have been subject to damages—hence, the $2,500 charge.
The original report made it clear that while legal, PayPal’s move was absolutely ill-advised.
“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, explained to 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,” Terr concluded.
PayPal has been quietly cancelling accounts and censoring conservatives such as Toby Young, a commentator who runs a nonprofit called Free Speech Union, who had his PayPal account cancelled three times.
 PayPal walked back a shocking policy announcement that users who are responsible for what they deem to be "misinformation" could face fines of up to $2,500 per offense, claiming it was a mistake after the a report went viral.){kind=link}