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PayPal is Being Sued For Blocking Alex Jones’ Infowars

<p>The online payment processing company PayPal is being sued after it announced a few weeks ago that it would be blocking Alex Jones&&num;8217&semi; company from earning money through the platform&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Jones&&num;8217&semi; website and radio show InfoWars has also been banned from YouTube&comma; Facebook&comma; Twitter&comma; Spotify&comma; and others&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In September&comma; PayPal followed suit and stop processing payments from the far-right news website and media platform after claiming it promoted &ldquo&semi;hate and discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Jones has said that PayPal&&num;8217&semi;s ban is an example of &&num;8220&semi;viewpoint discrimination&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;PayPal banning Plaintiff is a bridge too far and&comma; if allowed&comma; sets a dangerous precedent for any person or entity with controversial views&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Jones&&num;8217&semi; attorney Marc Randazza in the written complaint&period; &ldquo&semi;PayPal is the most recent company to join this campaign of censorship&period; It banned Plaintiff from its payment-processing platform for no reason other than disagreement with the messages Plaintiff conveys&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the lawsuit filed in San Jose federal court&comma; Jones&&num;8217&semi; attorneys claim that PayPal is violating California&&num;8217&semi;s civil rights and business laws by refusing to process transactions for his websites&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It is at this point well known that large tech companies&comma; located primarily in Silicon Valley&comma; are discriminating against politically conservative entities and individuals&comma; including banning them from social media platforms such as Twitter&comma; based solely on their political and ideological viewpoints&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Free Speech Systems&comma; the company owned by Jones in the 15-page complaint filed in California&period; &&num;8220&semi;Having effectively cornered the market&comma; &lbrack;PayPal&rsqb; is now using that market power to restrain conservative trade and commerce&period;&&num;8221&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PayPal gave InfoWars and any accounts associated with the company 10 business days to close all PayPal accounts&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;We do not take these actions lightly and we work hard to be rigorous and fair-minded&comma;&rdquo&semi; said the online payments giant defending its decision to bar the far-right organization&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PayPal spokesman Justin Higgs also said that the &&num;8220&semi;claims in the complaint are without merit&&num;8221&semi; and that the company &ldquo&semi;looks forward to vigorously defending itself&period;&&num;8221&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Jones is seeking damages and an injunction to stop PayPal from banning his business from using the payment platform&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Author&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> We are not fans of Alex Jones&period; Some of his conspiracy theories are ridiculous but this type of targeted censorship has got to stop&period; Jones&&num;8217&semi; should have his rights infringed by liberal led corporations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> This is exceedingly dangerous in a democracy&comma; where major damage can be done to a group for just expressing an opinion&period;&nbsp&semi; Punching Bag Post has already been denied the opportunity to advertise its messages on Facebook&period; It is not a major factor in our business model&comma; but for some its critical&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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