The decision to block Trump has everything to do with his silence on his various social media handles on the riot in the Capital City caused by his supporters.
Following the recent riot engaged by the supporters of the outgoing US president Donald Trump, online platforms that provide access to him and his campaign have taken action to restrict him from accessing their services. Previously, it was Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB), Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR), Instagram Inc, etc. Now, Stripe Inc, an online payment processing platform, has joined the action to temporarily terminate its services to Donald Trump.
This action means the platform will no longer provide services to Trump’s fundraising arms and his campaign websites. Trump can no longer rely on the payment processing platform to raise funds to fund his campaign and operations until further notice.
Stripe Inc boldly makes it clear that they have zero tolerance for transactions that are made to promote a highly risky activity. They do not tolerate transactions that “engages in, encourages, promotes, or celebrates unlawful violence or physical harm to persons or property.”
According to reports, the decision to block Trump has everything to do with his silence on his various social media handles on the riot in the Capital City caused by his supporters. Stripe Inc, therefore, finds it a violation of their policy which forbids violence, and hence the need to block Trump from using their platform. His silence on the happenings exposes his concern forcing many other platforms to cut his access to their services. Previously, PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL) and Shopify Inc took the lead to cut off access of Trump’s extreme supporters to their services.
Multiple reports have established that a group linked to Trump Identified as “Joy in Liberty” raises funds through the various payment platforms which included PayPal to support their actions. According to PayPal, this violates their long-standing policy.
“We do not allow PayPal services to be used to promote hate, violence or other forms of intolerance,” they wrote.
For some time, PayPal has taken action against far-right organizations. This group has a website that lists several payment platforms used for their donations. On the site is a feature that asks Patriots to request funds and another feature that asks them to donate to help patriots achieve their dreams. Interestingly, there are testimonials on the site from patriots who were helped with funding to travel to DC.
Zelle Payment Network and Cash App are also listed on the website as payment methods, and according to the report, Cash App refused to comment on it, however, Zelle said they are looking into the situation as their policy is against sending and receiving funds for activities that promote violence, intolerance, and hate.
Though it is not clear when the restrictions would be relaxed, it is more likely that things will fall back to places after the inauguration of the newly elected president.
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