Fox Business reported last week that the online payment processor Paypal released a new set of rules under which users would be fined $2,500.00 for promoting “hatred” or “misinformation.”
While the company quickly backtracked following a wave of cancellations, one Republican lawmaker is asking whether it’s part of a conspiracy with the White House to silence conservatives.
The proposed policy “would unmistakably censor free speech”
Breitbart reported this week that California Rep. Darrell Issa sent a letter to PayPal CEO Dan Schulman requesting information on the company’s speech policy.
Specifically, Issa wants to know if PayPal “[consulted] or [inquired] with the Biden administration” before putting forward a “policy that would unmistakably censor free speech.”
He went on to ask whether the company will “commit itself to a corporate practice of fundamental fairness and not single out for sanction users who don’t share certain political views.”
Issa was quoted as telling Breitbart, “The only ‘mistake’ PayPal made was thinking the American people are going to stand for this abuse of their power.”
“Time and again, conservatives and others are being targeted and taken down by Big Tech companies that want to silence them,” the congressman continued, adding, “There is no way we will allow this to continue.”
News of PayPal’s speech policy led to outrage online and was denounced by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk along with former PayPal executive David Marcus.
It’s hard for me to openly criticize a company I used to love and gave so much to. But @PayPal’s new AUP goes against everything I believe in. A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity. https://t.co/Gzf8faChUb
— David Marcus (@davidmarcus) October 8, 2022
Facebook founder says FBI asked that Hunter Biden story be censored
Issa’s questions about possible collusion between PayPal and the Biden administration comes two months after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told podcast host Joe Rogan that FBI agents told the platform to limit discussion of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“Basically, the background here is the FBI, I think, basically came to us- some folks on our team and was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, like, you should be on high alert,” Fox News quoted Zuckerberg as saying.
“We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that, basically, there’s about to be some kind of dump of that’s similar to that. So just be vigilant.”