Yet another company has shown that it does not support free speech – PayPal has banned the accounts of alternative media outlets and journalists that have questioned the narrative around the war in Ukraine.
MintPress News, a Minneapolis-based news website, has been critical of American foreign policy and was banned from using PayPal, along with the CEO and chief editor Mnar Adley and senior staff writer Alan MacLeod. Independent journalist Caleb Maupin was also banned from PayPal.
MintPress published an investigation by MacLeod titled “An Intellectual No-Fly Zone: Online Censorship of Ukraine Dissent is Becoming the New Norm,” a few days before they were banned, which alleged that Big Tech was working with Western governments to suppress news that contradicts the mainstream narrative – regarding the Russia-Ukraine war.
“PayPal banning myself and MintPress is blatant censorship of dissenting journalists and outlets,” said Adley in a statement. “For the past decade, MintPress has been unapologetically working as a watchdog journalism outlet to expose the profiteers of the permanent war state from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Sudan … to regime change operations in Syria, Ukraine … where U.S. weapons have flooded those nations to plunge them into devastating civil wars.”
Adley noted that the current administration is turning to censorship “to make the truth disappear and critical thinking all but dead.”
“With the war in Ukraine raging on, we’ve entered wartime and Big Tech giants, including PayPal, are working hand in hand with the New Cold War architects themselves to sanction dissenting journalists,” she continued. “If you read the board of any of these tech giants from Google, Twitter, Facebook and PayPal, they read like a rogues’ gallery of warmongers and their agenda is clear: To control the free flow of information and target the bank accounts of anyone who dares question the official narrative of the Pentagon or the State Department.”
American independent journalist, Maupin, has had his personal Twitter account branded “Russia state-affiliated media,” after he pushed back against the mainstream, anti-Russia narrative. PayPal also banned Maupin from its platform – leaving him unable to finance himself through donations from his readers.
“Why should something as basic as cash transactions be subject to political censorship?” said Maupin when asked for comment regarding his de-platforming. “The economic war on independent countries is turning into a war on free speech. Writers and journalists must be able to eat.”
Reclaim The Net’ Cindy Harper also pointed out that “limiting their sources of funding is as effective as direct censorship.”
Caitlin Johnstone, another independent journalist noted that taking away the ability for independent journalists to fund themselves, is a very effective way to silence dissenting voices.
“Speaking from experience, I know for a fact I couldn’t put out a fraction of the content I put out if I was forced to work a nine-to-five job in some office rather than having the freedom to put all my time and mental energy into this work thanks to the generous support of my readers,” said Johnstone. “Cutting me off from that funding would be the same as censoring me directly, because there’s no way I could continue the kind of work I do.”
“We are at a profoundly dangerous and frightening point in human history,” she continued. “The U.S. proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is escalating by the day and the drums of war are beating ever louder… If you think censorship is bad now, wait until this global power grab really gets going.”
I will tell you that once conservatives completely take over. PayPal better start reinstating every account of each conservative they banned for this is ridiculous.