PayPal Bans Alex Jones
Alex Jones’ InfoWars confirmed on Friday, September 21, that online financial giant PayPal has formally reached out to inform the controversial media personality that he will no longer be able to do business through their platform.
According to Jones, he became aware of the decision via an email that was received just one day prior to him going public about the ruling. The article that has been published to Jones’ website, as a means of sharing the news with its readership, concedes that PayPal determined his brand to have “promoted hate and discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions.” This after the company reportedly conducted what was described to him as a comprehensive review in observance of its policies.
PayPal refrained from issuing an open announcement concerning the ban, but a spokesperson for the popular payment processor did provide The Wrap with a memo addressing the matter.
“Our values are the foundation for the decision. We undertook an extensive review of the Infowars sites, and found instances that promoted hate or discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions, which run counter to our core value of inclusion,” the statement is reported to have read.
With the ruling, PayPal becomes the latest in a number of tech companies that have punished Jones for speech that has been widely deemed to be in violation of community rules. Starting in August, a wave of sites began to remove his content, with Apple, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter all imposing bans ahead of the latest reports.
The imposition of Twitter’s permanent suspension drew a passionate reaction from both supporters and opponents of Jones. On one hand, there are critics from across the political spectrum who are not comfortable with social media regulation and the dangerous precedent it may present against free speech. On the other hand there have been those who believe that the inflammatory nature of the narratives spewed from the likes of people like Milo Yiannopoulos, Richard Spencer, Roger Stone, and Jones present far more danger to society than the measures of censorship he’s been faced with.
Several campaigns that have been pushing for PayPal to take action against Jones have been celebrating since learning of the decision. Among them are Sleeping Giants and Right Wing Watch. One of the leading voices of the latter group, Jared Holt, is being recognized as an instrumental figure in the push to have Jones taken off.
“Removing PayPal from the Infowars platform inhibits Jones’ ability to make money from his malice,” he is often cited as stating in a piece that was published by Salon back in August.
On Friday, Holt returned to make light of the outcome, in a tweet that name dropped Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey while making reference to the verified status that Jones once carried.
“I think it’s only fair at this point for Jack to give me the check mark Alex Jones had,” wrote Holt.
