8 ms·

>“To comply with government regulations, PayPal is required to review certain transactions.” For mentioning the word Iran. Terrifying. I guess the best to hop

>“To comply with government regulations, PayPal is required to review certain transactions.” For mentioning the word Iran. Terrifying. I guess the best to hope for is that the Institute for Justice or the ACLU pick this up and sue for their free speech rights. But even then, the only consequence would be taxpayers burdened to pay up.

arachnids 7y ago
Courts have been pretty clear that supporting terrorism is not protected speech under the first amendment (https://harvardnsj.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/01/Vol.-2_Barak-Erez_and_Scharia_Final.pdf https://harvardnsj.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/01/V...)
- loeg 7y ago
  Mentioning the word "Iran" is not, in any sense, terrorism.
  - lostlogin 7y ago
    While you are entirely correct, there are clearly those who disagree and support the association.
loeg 7y ago
They were doing this long before last week. 2019: https://www.newsweek.com/venmo-flags-payments-persia-allows-nazis-1339871 https://www.newsweek.com/venmo-flags-payments-persia-allows-... 2016: https://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/venmo-reportedly-blocking-payments-that-use-the-word-persian.html https://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/venmo-reportedly-blocking-... 2014: http://valleywag.gawker.com/venmo-racial-profiling-account-frozen-for-typing-the-w-1646766081 http://valleywag.gawker.com/venmo-racial-profiling-account-f...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- wallace_f 7y ago
  I am aware. Even going back in history, I find most are surprised to know even Abraham Lincoln really went after journalists and the press. Anyways, I don't know why I was downvoted. Hopefully not because people disagree with that hope.
judge2020 7y ago
I don't see how you could make the case that PayPal donation messages are different than FB posts or tweets, in that the platform has every right to remove whatever content they want. I also doubt the financial industry regulations are caught up and can weigh in on this issue.
- wallace_f 7y ago
  Paypal has the right to, not the government.
briandear 7y ago
Free speech doesn’t apply to private entities.
- detaro 7y ago
  These filters exist due to legal requirements (and paypal has gotten into legal trouble for not filtering Iran-related transactions well enough in the past), so it's not quite that simple
  - ryanlol 7y ago
    There’s no legal requirement to filter transactions with this message: > “Thanks for all your excellent work and especially the Gray Zone’s coverage of the murder of Soleimani and war with Iran. You fellows are so insightful and brilliant.” There’s zero indication that this might be an Iran-related transaction.

arachnids 7y ago

Courts have been pretty clear that supporting terrorism is not protected speech under the first amendment (https://harvardnsj.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/01/Vol.-2_Barak-Erez_and_Scharia_Final.pdf https://harvardnsj.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/01/V...)

loeg 7y ago
Mentioning the word "Iran" is not, in any sense, terrorism.
- lostlogin 7y ago
  While you are entirely correct, there are clearly those who disagree and support the association.

loeg 7y ago

They were doing this long before last week. 2019: https://www.newsweek.com/venmo-flags-payments-persia-allows-nazis-1339871 https://www.newsweek.com/venmo-flags-payments-persia-allows-... 2016: https://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/venmo-reportedly-blocking-payments-that-use-the-word-persian.html https://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/venmo-reportedly-blocking-... 2014: http://valleywag.gawker.com/venmo-racial-profiling-account-frozen-for-typing-the-w-1646766081 http://valleywag.gawker.com/venmo-racial-profiling-account-f...

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
wallace_f 7y ago
I am aware. Even going back in history, I find most are surprised to know even Abraham Lincoln really went after journalists and the press. Anyways, I don't know why I was downvoted. Hopefully not because people disagree with that hope.

judge2020 7y ago

I don't see how you could make the case that PayPal donation messages are different than FB posts or tweets, in that the platform has every right to remove whatever content they want. I also doubt the financial industry regulations are caught up and can weigh in on this issue.

wallace_f 7y ago
Paypal has the right to, not the government.

briandear 7y ago

Free speech doesn’t apply to private entities.

detaro 7y ago
These filters exist due to legal requirements (and paypal has gotten into legal trouble for not filtering Iran-related transactions well enough in the past), so it's not quite that simple
- ryanlol 7y ago
  There’s no legal requirement to filter transactions with this message: > “Thanks for all your excellent work and especially the Gray Zone’s coverage of the murder of Soleimani and war with Iran. You fellows are so insightful and brilliant.” There’s zero indication that this might be an Iran-related transaction.