Lack of funding can starve any person, group or company. That’s why values-based denials of service by online payment processors are a serious threat to free speech and civil society.

Silicon Valley’s Paypal is a powerhouse with more than 429 million users and more than $25.3 billion in revenue in 2021. Although the company has claimed it values "diversity and inclusion” and democratizes payments for “all citizens,” liberal Paypal axes 10 to 100 accounts monthly according to a February 2019 interview between company CEO Daniel Schulman and the Wall Street Journal.

Paypal has often portrayed this as a deplatforming of undesirables — racists, white nationalists and left-wing, anti-fascists — for societal good. But Paypal has also purged conservatives under the guise of stopping “hate speech.” In 2018 and 2019, Paypal wielded the power of the purse against the free-speech platform Gab, groups including ACT! for America, as well as personalities including provocateur Laura Loomer and Gavin McInnes. In 2011, it banned firearms sales and transactions and applied the ban to the Silah Report in 2020 even though it researches firearms and does not sell them.

Contact Paypal: (402) 935-2258, Facebook, Twitter, or mail 2211 North First Street, San Jose, CA, 95131.

In the realm of online payments, several major players have emerged onto the market in recent years, in addition to longstanding stronghold PayPal. Stripe is one of those platforms. Brothers John and Patrick Collison started building Stripe in 2010, a company valued at $95 billion in May 2022.

Online sales and fundraising are essential for individuals and organizations today. But to do either requires a payment processor. The trouble for conservatives is that processors can refuse and have refused to work with them.

For Stripe's part, the company suspended Gab following the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, banned conservative video creator Lauren Southern for a social experiment and stopped working with FreeStartr (a free-speech alternative to Patreon) and MakerSupport.

Contact Stripe: (888) 963-8955, Facebook, Twitter or mail 510 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA 94103.

GoFundMe purports to be an equalizer, announcing on its website "your inspiration should be shared with everyone." It doesn't. Everyone does not mean everyone. The crowdfunding platform which launched in 2010 has notoriously shut down campaigns created by prominent populists and conservatives, and has sided with the LGBTQ community against Christian convictions in recent years.

Canadian truckers protesting their country's draconian COVID-19 policies were the latest example. The fundraising platform GoFundMe reportedly announced it would withhold millions of dollars raised for the truckers and distribute the money to other charities. The platform then suspended the trucker convoy fundraiser, and said it promoted violence and harassment in Ottawa.

Meanwhile, GoFundMe has expressly helped liberal groups including pro-abortion Planned Parenthood. In 2019, GoFundMe created the megafund “Fight Back: Protect Abortion Access,” 

Donations to the megafund went to the National Network of Abortion Funds, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU Foundation, according to Marie Claire.

Contact GoFundMe: Online, Facebook, Twitter or by mail 855 Jefferson Avenue PO Box 1329 Redwood City, CA 94063