Amendments to the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy
Effective November 3, 2022:
- We are expanding the existing list of prohibited activities to include the sending, posting, or publication of messages, content, or materials that meet certain criteria.
From Paypal’s “Acceptable Use” Policy:
You are independently responsible for complying with all applicable laws in all of your actions related to your use of PayPal’s services, regardless of the purpose of the use. In addition, you must adhere to the terms of this Acceptable Use Policy. Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy constitutes a violation of the PayPal User Agreement and may subject you to damages, including liquidated damages of $2,500.00 U.S. dollars per violation, which may be debited directly from your PayPal account(s) as outlined in the User Agreement (see “Restricted Activities and Holds” section of the PayPal User Agreement).
and
Prohibited Activities
You may not use the PayPal service for activities that:
…
5. involve the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials that, in PayPal’s sole discretion, (a) are harmful, obscene, harassing, or objectionable, (b) depict or appear to depict nudity, sexual or other intimate activities, (c) depict or promote illegal drug use, (d) depict or promote violence, criminal activity, cruelty, or self-harm (e) depict, promote, or incite hatred or discrimination of protected groups or of individuals or groups based on protected characteristics (e.g. race, religion, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.) (f) present a risk to user safety or wellbeing, (g) are fraudulent, promote misinformation, or are unlawful, (h) infringe the privacy, intellectual property rights, or other proprietary rights of any party, or (i) are otherwise unfit for publication.
“in PayPal’s sole discretion”
I assume this is a term of art that lawyers can/will unpack for us. But makes me chuckle at the idea of Banks using sole discretion criteria to levy fines. Mr. Capone, in our sole discretion, we believe you are promoting illegal drug use, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, infinity times (and that was just last weekend when I was at one of your clubs)… all your assets are belong to us – not, mind you, the state authorities who can’t seem to prosecute you, but to us.
Personally, I’d volunteer to run the ‘self-harm’ division on a commission basis.Report
I rank enforceability as very low. It doesn’t come remotely close to meeting a liquidated damage standard. It’s a contract of adhesion in click-wrap form. What it probably constitutes is more of a head fake to scare people, and on that count it may well work to the extent anyone actually reads it, which most won’t, plus of course the cost and difficulty of taking action against a big company over small amounts of money. A lot depends on how much paypal enforces it.Report
I refuse to use PayPal. I have declined to make contributions to causes that I would otherwise support simply because the sole payment method involves PayPal.Report
How come?Report
So a private version of civil asset forfeiture – I’m sure that will work out just fine.Report
It makes me think of Chesterton’s fence.
Only a few years ago the prospect of technology enabling private bank-like entities to flourish in a free unregulated environment was thought to be a good thing.Report
Going through “Paypal” on Twitter gets you about 90% people complaining about this policy and 10% scams or ads for sex work.Report
Looks like they’re walking it back:
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“notice recently went out in error”, “PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy”
It seems PayPal is not in control of their organization. Obviously run by “WOKE” end justifies the mens zealots. Not anyone I care to do business with.
After over tens years, I CLOSED my PayPal account today.Report
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