PayPal Blacklists Free Speech YouTube Alternative ‘BitChute’

Payment processing service PayPal has blacklisted free speech YouTube alternative “BitChute,” stopping the platform from receiving or sending any money through its service, which BitChute used as its main payment processor. BitChute blames the action on its “stand against the current trend in censorship.”

BitChute announced the blacklisting in a blog post, Wednesday, declaring, “A few hours ago BitChute received a notice that our PayPal account has been permanently limited, with immediate effect, and that we will no longer be able to accept or send payments.”

“The notice included the following information: ‘The User Agreement for PayPal Service states that PayPal, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to limit an account for any violation of the User Agreement, including the Acceptable Use Policy.’ This decision seems to be final although we will try to appeal,” BitChute founder and CEO Ray Vahey explained. “BitChute has had a Paypal account since 2016, we have used it to settle payments and to receive subscription payments from supporters along with other discretionary payments. It’s our belief that it is our stand against the current trend in censorship that has resulted in this action.”

“BitChute is politically neutral and we have a diverse community in interests and backgrounds. We require that users only upload legal content that complies with our terms and community guidelines. We carry out moderation to remove all content that breaches our terms and community guidelines, including but not limited to videos from terrorists, child abuse or pirated video,” continued Vahey, adding, “BitChute is pro-free expression which is a universal human right.”

Vahey concluded that BitChute is currently “working to get a replacement credit card payments processor.”

BitChute has previously called out payments processor Stripe for blacklisting Gab, another alternative social network, and in an April interview with Breitbart Tech, BitChute declared, “What we need is more competition, more alternatives, more freedom.”

In October, alternative social network Gab was blacklisted by PayPal and Stripe, while in August, conservative writer David Horowitz was blacklisted by Visa and Mastercard.

Infowars, Tommy Robinson, Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, WikiLeaks, and 2018 Toronto mayoral election candidate Faith Goldy are also currently, or have previously been, blacklisted by PayPal.

“The creeping exclusion of the right from online platforms like Twitter and Facebook is well-known, drawing the attention of Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale and the RNC. But a greater challenge is on the horizon: the exclusion of the right from financial services,” proclaimed Breitbart Tech Senior Reporter Allum Bokhari in July. “Conservatives have long been the target of shadowbans, biased algorithms, and account bans on social media. Not content with silencing their voices online, the left now wants to stop the right from using the web to fundraise. Thanks to the increasing willingness of online fundraising platforms and payment processors to ban clients for political reasons, they are getting their way.”

“As the left prepares for the 2018 midterms and the 2020 general election, they want to ensure that only they have access to that tremendous power. And with PayPal and Stripe withdrawing support from politically neutral fundraising platforms, they are well on their way to achieving that aim,” he continued. “Like the social media purges, this represents an existential threat to the conservative and pro-Trump movement.”

In the same month, liberal nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation claimed to be “deeply concerned” that payment processors were becoming the “de facto internet censors.”