10/10/2022
PayPal published a new policy towards the end of last week that was set to go into practice in November. Companies do this all the time and there is never any fanfare. But this policy update was quite different.
PayPal explicitly stated that they would target anyone “sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials” that “promote misinformation.” How would they do this? The company would deduct $2,500 from your PayPal account if they deemed you were in violation.
Unbelievable.
To ensure that we have no misunderstanding here, let me break this down in the most simple terms. A private company was prepared to financially penalize their customers if they posted any message on the internet that the company believed was “misinformation.”
Naturally, the internet had a field day with this. The backlash was loud and swift. Everyone from Elon Musk to former PayPal President David Marcus spoke out against this egregious encroachment on personal freedom, individual liberties, and free speech.
This kind of lunacy from a corporation reminded me of the George Orwell line from 1984:
“The ideal set up by the Party was something huge, terrible, and glittering—a world of steel and concrete, of monstrous machines and terrifying weapons—a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting—three hundred million people all with the same face.” - George Orwell