{"id":210854,"date":"2022-05-09T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=210854"},"modified":"2022-05-07T04:35:59","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T03:35:59","slug":"paypals-indymedia-wipeout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/05\/paypals-indymedia-wipeout\/","title":{"rendered":"PayPal’s IndyMedia Wipeout"},"content":{"rendered":"

A series of moves against media outlets by PayPal shows the next step in speech control: confiscation. Why won’t the company answer questions?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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3 May 2022 – <\/em>In the last week or so, the online payment platform PayPal without explanation suspended the accounts of a series of individual journalists and media outlets, including the well-known alt sites Consortium News <\/em>and MintPress. <\/em>Each received a variation of the following message:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Unlike many on the list, Consortium <\/em>editor Joe Lauria succeeded in reaching a human being at the company in search of details about the frozen or \u201cheld\u201d funds referenced in the note. The PayPal rep told him that if the company decided \u201cthere was a violation\u201d after a half-year review period, then \u201cit is possible\u201d PayPal would keep the $9,348.14 remaining in Consortium\u2019s account, as \u201cdamages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA secretive process in which they could award themselves damages, not by a judge or a jury,\u201d Lauria says. \u201cTotally in secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consortium<\/em>, founded by the late investigative reporter Robert Parry, has been critical of NATO and the Pentagon<\/a> and a consistent source of skeptical reporting about Russiagate<\/a>, as well as one of just a few outlets to regularly cover the Julian Assange case<\/a> with any sympathy for the accused. Ironically, one of the site\u2019s primary themes involves exploring disinformation emanating from the intelligence community. The site has had content disrupted by platforms like Facebook<\/a> before, but now its pockets are being picked in addition.<\/p>\n

This episode ups the ante again on the content moderation movement, toward the world hinted at in the response to the Canadian trucker protests, where having the wrong opinions can result in your money being frozen or seized. Going after cash is a big jump from simply deleting speech, with a much bigger chilling effect. This is especially true in the alternative media world, where money has long been notoriously tight, and the loss of a few thousand dollars here or there can have a major effect on a site, podcast, or paper.<\/p>\n

As MintPress <\/em>founder and executive director Mnar Adley points out, the current era of content moderation \u2014 characterized by private platforms either overtly or covertly working with government to identify accounts for censure \u2014 really began with PayPal\u2019s historic decision in 2010 to halt donations to Wikileaks. In that case, PayPal acted after receiving a letter from the State Department<\/a> claiming the site\u2019s activities were illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cPayPal banning donations from WikiLeaks really set up the blueprint for today\u2019s censorship,\u201d Adley says.<\/p>\n

Lauria believes PayPal is basing a potential claim on his company\u2019s funds on a list of restricted activities in its service agreement that includes providing \u201cfalse, inaccurate or misleading information<\/a>.\u201d He notes, of course, that \u201cfalse\u201d is \u201cwhat they think is false, that is,\u201d which is troubling for a pair of big reasons.<\/p>\n

One is the ongoing possibility of government or law enforcement involvement in fact-checking decisions, as PayPal announced just last year it would be cooperating with authorities in a content moderation campaign. The other is that the thread connecting the recent affected accounts \u2014 which include the former RT <\/em>contributor Caleb Maupin and the host of the Geopolitics and Empire podcast Hrvoje Mori\u0107, among others \u2014 is that they\u2019re all generally antiwar voices, who\u2019ve been critical either of NATO or of official messaging with regard to the Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n

Alan MacLeod of MintPress <\/em>is one of the writers who received the notice about improper \u201cactivity\u201d in his account. He assumed at first there had to be a mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe claim that my activity is \u2018inconsistent\u2019 with their user agreement is complete nonsense because I literally haven\u2019t used my PayPal account since at least August of 2021,\u201d he says. \u201cI actually assumed [the suspension] was because it\u2019d been inactive for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacLeod\u2019s most recent article is entitled, \u201cThe NATO to TikTok Pipeline: Why is TikTok Employing So Many National Security Agents<\/a>?\u201d In it, he laid out a long list of \u201cformer spooks, spies, and Mandarins\u201d hired by TikTok:<\/p>\n

While simultaneously being the Content Policy Lead for TikTok Canada, Alexander Corbeil is also the vice president<\/a> of the NATO Association of Canada, a NATO-funded<\/a> organization chaired by former Canadian Minister of Defense David Collenette\u2026 Another NATO-linked new recruit is Ayse Ko\u00e7ak<\/a>, a Global Product Policy manager at the company. Before joining TikTok last year, she spent three years at NATO\u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If this is what qualifies as \u201cfalse, inaccurate, or misleading information,\u201d while CNN, MSNBC, and Fox\u2019s daily rollout of ex-military analysts with undisclosed lobbying ties<\/a> is upheld as the unobjectionable truth, it\u2019s more or less finita la commedia<\/em> for independent media. \u201cI guess writing about big social media outlets being staffed with former NATO officials might be controversial,\u201d MacLeod quipped.<\/p>\n

The experience of MintPress<\/em> exemplifies the logistical Whac-a-Mole controversial publishers have to play now in order to survive as businesses. In addition to the PayPal ban \u2014 which hit MacLeod, Adley, and one other former Mint <\/em>contributor, forcing the company to stop paying its writers via the platform \u2014 MintPress<\/em> last month saw two of its fundraising campaigns on GoFundMe shut down. According to Adley, the outlet was able to receive about 90% of donations across a two-year campaign before they were abruptly cut off. At least GoFundMe didn\u2019t try to keep \u201cdamages,\u201d as several thousand dollars earmarked for MintPress <\/em>were instead returned to donors.<\/p>\n

Adley believes the chief crime of MintPress <\/em>is that it exists as an alternative to monolithic messaging surrounding issues like Ukraine. Moreover, she believes it\u2019s in trouble with PayPal not for being false, but precisely for printing true uncomfortable things, like McLeod\u2019s NATO-to-TikTok story, or Dan Cohen\u2019s recent piece about the 150-odd Western public relations firms<\/a> working with Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Ministry. Several of these MintPress <\/em>pieces about Ukraine have gone viral in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe name the names, we break through the propaganda, we show the profiteers,\u201d Adley says. \u201cThere\u2019s so few of us left that do that, and I think that\u2019s why we\u2019ve become a target.\u201d<\/p>\n

As is the case with a lot of these accounts, MintPress <\/em>falls out of the mainstream on whole ranges of issues. It\u2019s come under heavy fire for its coverage of Syria<\/a>, for instance. A lot of political moderates will struggle to connect with its point of view. This however is the whole point of alternative media, whose brief is to explore themes the traditional press won\u2019t or can\u2019t. If traditional news consumers feel comfortable reading them, these sites probably aren\u2019t doing their jobs correctly. Censorship of them is especially concerning if law enforcement plays any role, since these are among the last media concerns to evince any skepticism about national security messaging. Unfortunately, there is reason to suspect this is the case.<\/p>\n

On July 26th of last year, PayPal announced<\/a> a new partnership with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to \u201cfight extremism and hate through the financial industry and across at-risk communities.\u201d In describing the arrangement, PayPal talked about a third actor \u2014 the government:<\/p>\n

PayPal and ADL have launched a research effort to address the urgent need to understand how extremist and hate movements throughout the U.S. are attempting to leverage financial platforms to fund criminal activity. The intelligence gathered through this research initiative will be shared broadly across the financial industry and with policymakers and law enforcement<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter at least occasionally explain why prominent accounts have been suspended, neither PayPal nor the ADL will comment about how suspensions and confiscations of companies like MintPress <\/em>and Consortium <\/em>fit into their efforts to head off \u201ccriminal activity.\u201d I reached out this week not just to the media relations offices of PayPal and the ADL, but to figures quoted in last year\u2019s announcement, including ADL\u2019s Jonathan Greenblatt and PayPal Chief Risk officer Aaron Karczmer, getting no response anywhere.<\/p>\n

The ADL\u2019s silence is particularly galling because some of the suspended accounts have written extensively about neo-Nazi movements not just in Ukraine, but in the U.S.<\/a> and in other countries, including Russia. MacLeod only just recently published a thread on the Nazi symbols worn by soldiers on both sides of the Ukraine conflict:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlanRMacLeod\/status\/1517526318426243073<\/p>\n

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Some person in the replies doing whataboutism and asking why I don't highlight Russian Nazis. Well, I do. https:\/\/t.co\/v0GOMmNyxo<\/a><\/p>\n

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) April 22, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n