Internet payment services giant PayPal has blacklisted Infowars from its platform for allegedly promoting “hate and discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions.”
Infowars was informed of the ban this week, and it claims to have been told “off record” that the ban was due to “criticism of Islam and opposition to transgenderism being taught to children in schools.”
“The ban was instituted despite InfowarsStore.com containing no political content whatsoever, emphasizing how the decision was a broader attack on the Infowars platform,” Infowars declared in a statement. “PayPal representatives said they were giving Infowars 10 days to switch payment processors, after which all services would be terminated.”
Infowars further claimed that the ban was due to lobbying from “George Soros-funded group Right Wing Watch” who “published an article” several weeks ago “demanding that PayPal terminate its agreement with Infowars.”
Last month, Infowars was banned from most Big Tech platforms and services within the space of a few days, following a pressure campaign from CNN, BuzzFeed, Hollywood, and Democrat senators.
Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Twitter, Apple’s App Store, Disqus, Spotify, Vimeo, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and MailChimp all banned Infowars from using their platforms and services, while a survey revealed that 61 percent of Big Tech employees supported the mass censorship.
PayPal has previously banned users for political reasons, including WikiLeaks, Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch, Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative, conservative pundit Chuck Johnson, and Toronto mayoral candidate and YouTuber Faith Goldy.
Other major payment processing services, such as Stripe and Patreon, have also engaged in political banning, prompting the liberal digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation to express concern over payment processing services becoming “de facto internet censors.” Mastercard led efforts to cut off payments to Jihad Watch and the David Horowitz Freedom Center in a similar fashion.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.
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