Gab.com banned from PayPal • Hacker News Board

Re: Gab.com banned from PayPal

#31

Post by Asparagirl » Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 9:33 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #29

Asparagirl wrote: post #26

Good. Now for Stripe. I already called their customer support this morning and told them I'd pull my organization's account unless they dropped Gab. I'm sure I'm not the only customer who has. They enable payments processing for Gab, which means that they also profit from Gab. They make money off the alt-right. They choose to make money off the alt-right. You want protests in front of your office, Stripe, raising hel…

Does Stripe still process payments for Gab?

Apparently yes, based on several conversations with/from some of their leadership on Twitter today. Stripe did suspend them earlier this month, but that seems to have been temporary.

Re: Gab.com banned from PayPal

#32

Post by WillPostForFood » Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 9:33 PM UTC

zorpner wrote: post #25

raverbashing wrote: post #2

Financial censorship is still censorship

Paypal is not the government. Stop this absurd misrepresentation of censorship.

Stop the absurd misrepresentation that only the government censor.

Re: Gab.com banned from PayPal

#33

Post by WillPostForFood » Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 9:34 PM UTC

bhtru wrote: post #28

raverbashing wrote: post #2

Financial censorship is still censorship

Is it censorship when it's between two private entities?

It is. Censorship is not solely a government action. We have concepts everyone should be familiar with like self-censorship that don’t involve the government.

Re: Gab.com banned from PayPal

#34

Post by Waterluvian » Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 9:35 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #2

Financial censorship is still censorship

This sounds like an argument that can only be made if one believes that they're incapable of competing without PayPal's involvement. It sounds like a meek whine that they deserve special protections that force other companies to work with them.

If PayPal is such an overwhelming giant of a service that you genuinely believe it needs to be forced to do business with certain corporations, then maybe it should be made into some sort of regulated service.

Re: Gab.com banned from PayPal

#35

Post by bgilroy26 » Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 9:35 PM UTC

ben_jones wrote: post #27

fzeroracer wrote: post #23

It should honestly come as no surprise considering Gab, much like Voat, is a website filled with some of the most vitriolic and racist garbage I've ever seen. No company wants to be associated with a walking PR disaster. Most of the time however they're more than happy to take money from said places as long as people don't make it into a big PR problem.

As bad is voat is I've seen that aspect of humanity on Youtube, Facebook, the comment section of most major news sites, the live chat of twitch, etc.

Historically, voat and gab were set up because its users disapproved of the moderation on reddit and twitter. That differentiates the cultures on voat and gab from their predecessors.

Re: Gab.com banned from PayPal

#36

Post by zarriak » Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 9:36 PM UTC

I appreciate that fact that you can tell this is all just a front for beliefs they don't have.

I mean if they really believe in free speech you would assume they would have mentioned Julian Assange or Wikileaks once. It would have made a lot more sense if they had ever mentioned how dangerous the censorship of Wikileaks by monetary means was. Fortunately they never did this so you can reasonably assume it is a front.

Re: Gab.com banned from PayPal

#37

Post by shameful_idiot » Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 9:36 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #2

Financial censorship is still censorship

Damn what a great hill to die on dude

Re: Gab.com banned from PayPal

#38

Post by giobox » Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 9:36 PM UTC

ben_jones wrote: post #27

fzeroracer wrote: post #23

It should honestly come as no surprise considering Gab, much like Voat, is a website filled with some of the most vitriolic and racist garbage I've ever seen. No company wants to be associated with a walking PR disaster. Most of the time however they're more than happy to take money from said places as long as people don't make it into a big PR problem.

As bad is voat is I've seen that aspect of humanity on Youtube, Facebook, the comment section of most major news sites, the live chat of twitch, etc.

Of course it exists everywhere in some measure (one can’t change the nature of humanity all that easily with just a website), but at least YouTube/Twitch/Facebook actually have some degree of value/utility. Voat et al appear to exist as little more than platforms for hateful bile that isn’t tolerated elsewhere.

Re: Gab.com banned from PayPal

#39

Post by threeseed » Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 9:37 PM UTC

dgzl wrote: post #16

Was Gab actively supporting the hateful groups more than just giving them a speech platform? Because if not, this is truly terrifying. It seems like the "left" (whatever that means), with waves of ignorant support, is turning into the monster it thinks it's fighting against.

You just seem like a parody right now.

(a) Why did you turn this into a left/right issue ?

(b) How is Paypal left ?

(c) Since when is the left the only one responsible for censorship or ToS enforcement.

Because many examples exist today where centrists and the right do this as well.

Re: Gab.com banned from PayPal

#40

Post by dev_dull » Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 9:37 PM UTC

yzmtf2008 wrote: post #13

Meekro wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most companies have something in their ToS to the effect of "we can do whatever we want" -- that doesn't mean they're all the same. For example, Stripe and PayPal both have essentially the same ToS. But only PayPal has so many "banned for no reason" horror stories that there are multiple websites dedicated to cataloging them.

Don’t conflate this story with “banned for no reason”. There are plenty of reasons to ban Gab.

Are they doing anything illegal?