by Jeremy Knauff at Grit Daily
As far as PR crises go, PayPal has gotten itself into quite the predicament.
On October 8th, the company updated its terms of service agreement to include a clause enabling it to withdraw $2,500 from users’ bank accounts simply for posting anything the company deems as misinformation or offensive.
Unsurprisingly, the backlash was instant and massive.
Who would have guessed that consumers don’t want a company trying to police their speech by threatening to drain their bank accounts for saying something the company doesn’t like? Well, apparently everyone except the executives and legal team at PayPal.
Aside from the fact that the clause is a fool’s errand because there is literally no way for the company to legitimately determine what is or isn’t misinformation, and that “offensive” is subjective, there is no legal basis for a clause like this anyway. PayPal has no legal right to dictate activity that happens outside of its own platform, especially when that activity has zero impact on PayPal.
This is yet another case of big tech overreach.
Many of the people behind these companies have mistakenly convinced themselves that they are the arbiters of truth, and have set out on a mission to silence anyone who doesn’t share their fringe views, and consumers are tired of it.
The public’s response was swift,…
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