After the reveal of its future terms of service, PayPal suffered a major opt-out movement. Since then, the American company has retraced its steps, leaving behind a bitter taste of censorship for its customers. What created the controversy?
Back to the origins of the scandal
Last weekend, online payment giant PayPal found itself at the heart of an intense controversy. In question, its future conditions of use explicitly favored the use of censorship against its customers.
According to this document, anyone who violates PayPal’s rules of use could be fined up to $2,500, deducted directly from the user’s account. To quote the words of the file:
“Violation of these Terms of Service constitutes a violation of PayPal’s User Agreement and may subject you to damages of up to $2,500 per violation, which may be charged directly to your PayPal account. […]. »
Still in the same document, the American company specified that it could apply its fine ” by his judgment alone “. Without going into the details related to the legal nature or not of such a measure, the company had therefore taken a position in favor of potential censorship applicable to its users.
BREAKING: PayPal will steal all your money if you send, post, or publish “any messages, content, or materials that, in PayPal’s sole discretion, (a) are harmful, obscene, harassing, or objectionable”. pic.twitter.com/tB6B3lbidF
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) September 30, 2022
“PayPal will steal all of your money if you send, post, or publish “any message, content, or material that, in PayPal’s sole judgment, is harmful, obscene, harassing, or objectionable.” »
This situation is a reminder of the power of censorship acquired by large companies, where decision-making is centralized. Moreover, it is by wanting to fight this centralization that the Bitcoin cryptocurrency was born.
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PayPal goes into reverse
After the publication of these new terms of use, which were to come into effect from November 3, 2022, a wave of unsubscription hit the platform. On Twitter, many Internet users have posted screenshots showing their unsubscription to the services of the American company.
On his side, David Marcus (former president of PayPal) stated his opposition to the new rules desired by PayPal:
” PayPal’s new rules go against everything I believe. A private company can now decide to take your money if you say something it disagrees with. This is madness. »
After these few hours of media storm, the company ended up responding to its opponents. According to a press release, PayPal claims that the document containing its future terms of service was ” a mistake ». In addition, the payment company points out that it has “no never intended to insert these rules” in its terms of use.
Nevertheless, for many Internet users, the pill is hard to pass. Some wonder how a multi-page document could have been accidentally written and published. In other words, whether this error is intentional or not, the company has lost the trust of its customers.
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Is PayPal’s legacy secure?
The PayPal scandal is a warning from Internet users against centralized companies. For some years, cryptocurrencies have emerged as an alternative to these institutions. As a result, economic players in the technology sector are all concerned about topics related to Web3.
The PayPal company is known to have been the entrepreneurial breeding ground of Web2. We can name:
- The founders of YouTube (Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, Jawed Karim);
- One of the co-founders of LinkedIn (Reid Hoffman);
- Square’s COO (Keith Rabois);
- The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX (Elon Musk).
Some players have already taken positions in the cryptocurrency sector. Despite its recent controversy, PayPal has adopted cryptocurrencies for almost 2 years. For his part, Elon Musk is known for his ambivalent attitude towards Bitcoin.
In other words, the Web3 seems to be an essential component of the future of the Internet: whether it is the company PayPal or the banking institutions as a whole, all will have to adapt to meet the new needs for freedomdesired by an increasingly large part of the population.
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Sources: PayPal press release
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