The last couple of weeks have been a nightmare for PayPal, the multinational financial tech firm that operates a popular online payment system. And if it appeared to be all too dystopian, it turns out that it was for a good reason.
It also illustrates who the real fascists are when it comes to American politics.
The financial services company has been under fire for some time by routinely deplatforming companies and organizations it disagrees with politically.
On Oct. 7 PayPal took that up to the next level. It announced that as of Nov. 3, it would fine any individual that uses the service to pay for goods or make donations and who also spreads "disinformation."
Specifically, it said that it will prohibit "the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials" that "promote misinformation" or "present a risk to user safety or wellbeing." Users could be fined up to $2,500 per infraction.
Lightspark co-founder and CEO David Marcus was dumbfounded.
"It's hard for me to openly criticize a company I used to love and gave so much to. But @PayPal's new AUP [acceptable use policy] goes against everything I believe in," he said.
"A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity," Marcus added.
The company scrambled to remove the new terms of service and told customers that it was all a huge mistake. Meanwhile, PayPal stock plummeted.
Texas-based CEO, CRTV engagement director and investor Jason Howerton reported that "@PayPal down 6.12% in the first half of the day."
He added, "We can go lower."
Were we living in the Twilight Zone for those few days? Nope. It turns out we got a dose of what life in China is like.
PayPal's since-deleted additional terms of service were the creation of a PayPal contractor — a Chinese PayPal contractor.
PayPal announced that "An [Accepted Use Policy] notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information." A PayPal spokesperson said, "PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy. We're sorry for the confusion this has caused."
Lawyer, Newsmax columnist, and New York Times bestselling author James Hirsen saw the fiasco as a lesson for other companies to avoid going woke.
"In any event, the PayPal saga serves as an object lesson for corporations still wishing to dabble in viewpoint discrimination," he wrote. "A big warning sign now hangs at the entrance to the internet, which reads, CAUTION: Censor at your own risk."
But more than that, the fiasco should serve as a lesson to all Americans — particularly the left who routinely engage in cancel culture directed at anyone with whom they disagree.
They call others out and try to shame them, publish their name, address, and report them to their employers, over some perceived wrong: a wrong word, a wrong idea, or maybe addressing the aggrieved individual by the wrong pronoun.
It's no accident that the First Amendment to the Constitution — the very first of the Bill of Rights — guarantees freedom of expression, whether it's a religious or secular belief, a political or scientific idea, a published news story or opinion, or a grievance addressed to the government.
In December 1860, abolitionist, orator, statesman and former slave Frederick Douglass delivered one of his finest addresses: "A Plea for Free Speech in Boston." In it, he warned that "liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist."
For a few brief days we got a taste of what an oppressive regime, of what a world lacking those freedoms looks like, and that should be a lesson to us all.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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