{"id":210788,"date":"2022-05-09T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=210788"},"modified":"2022-05-03T09:56:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T08:56:48","slug":"paypal-cancels-consortium-news-account-may-seize-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/05\/paypal-cancels-consortium-news-account-may-seize-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"PayPal Cancels Consortium News Account–May Seize Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The online payment system gave no warning or reason why the CN account has been \u201cpermanently limited.\u201d PayPal indicated that only if \u201capplicable\u201d will the balance be returned.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

1 May 2022 –<\/em> PayPal has canceled Consortium News<\/strong><\/em>\u2018 account without any prior notice or due process and with virtually no explanation.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Consortium News<\/strong><\/em> is today launching its Spring Fund Drive, it has lost one of its most important ways for its viewers and readers to show their support through donations.\u00a0 Clicking on the yellow PayPal donate button on our home page now yields this message:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

PayPal has sent an email to CN<\/strong><\/em> that says:<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t use PayPal anymore. \u2026 We noticed activity in your account that\u2019s inconsistent with our User Agreement<\/a> and we no longer offer you PayPal services. \u2026 Because of potential risk exposure, we\u2019ve permanently limited your account. You\u2019ll no longer be able to use the account for any transactions.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The message says that \u201cany money in your PayPal balance will be held for up to 180 days,\u201d after which, \u201cif applicable, we\u2019ll email you with information on how to withdraw any remaining money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consortium\u2019s<\/strong><\/em> PayPal account page now shows a similar message. (Click to enlarge)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No Prior Notice or Explanation<\/h3>\n

There was no prior notice sent nor was\u00a0Consortium News<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0afforded any due process. A PayPal customer service agent confirmed in a telephone call on Sunday that the \u201cback office\u201d gave no specific reason for \u201cpermanently limiting\u201d\u00a0CN<\/strong><\/em>\u2018s account other than that an \u201cinvestigation and review\u201d of\u00a0CN<\/strong><\/em>\u2018s \u201chistory found some potential risk associated with this account.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the \u201cpotential risk\u201d from\u00a0CN<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is \u201cnot exactly specified by the back office.\u201d\u00a0 The agent said, \u201cIt has something to do with the history of this account.\u201d\u00a0 Asked whether any agency, government or private, or any individual had complained to PayPal about\u00a0CN<\/strong><\/em>, the customer service agent replied, \u201cI don\u2019t see any existing case.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agent could not explain why\u00a0Consortium News<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0was given no notice or any due process, but promised to ask the \u201cback office\u201d to contact\u00a0CN<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0to explain.<\/p>\n

Regarding the $9,348.14 balance in\u00a0CN<\/strong><\/em>\u2018s PayPal account, the agent said that after a 180-day review PayPal would decide whether to return it. \u201cIf there was a violation,\u201d she said \u201cit is possible\u201d the money could be kept as \u201cdamages\u201d to PayPal.\u00a0 Violations under the Restricted Activities of the\u00a0User Agreement<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0include providing \u201cfalse, inaccurate or misleading information\u201d to PayPal, other PayPal customers \u201cor third parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the current political climate it is more than conceivable that PayPal is reacting to\u00a0Consortium News\u2019<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0coverage of the war in Ukraine, which is not in line with the dominant narrative that is being increasingly enforced. Last week PayPal also\u00a0froze<\/a>\u00a0the account of the alternative news site\u00a0MintPressNews.<\/em><\/p>\n

PayPal was\u00a0sued<\/a>\u00a0in California in January in a class action for similarly shutting down accounts.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of <\/em>Consortium News and a former correspondent for\u00a0<\/em>The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe,\u00a0Sunday Times\u00a0of London and numerous other newspapers. He can be reached at<\/em> joelauria@consortiumnews.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 consortiumnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 May 2022 – PayPal has canceled CN’s account without any prior notice or due process and with virtually no explanation. The online payment system gave no warning or reason and indicated that only if \u201capplicable\u201d will the balance be returned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":210791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[2375,867,1785,550,651,2571,2842,70],"class_list":["post-210788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-alternative-media","tag-anglo-america","tag-censorship","tag-corruption","tag-justice","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-paypal","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}