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Big Tech could be banned in the UK from blocking accounts for political reasons

Conservative lawmakers condemn that PayPal has had censorship initiatives which were "politically motivated to silence critical or dissenting opinions.”

Michael Gove / Cordon Press.

Michael Gove / Cordon Press.

Published by
José Carlos Rodríguez

A legislative initiative led by several British Conservative Party lawmakers will, if passed, end PayPal and other technology platforms from censoring speech. The initiative comes after PayPal censured free speech advocacy organization Free Speech Union, as well as UsForThem, which called for schools to remain open during the pandemic.

As reported by The Telegraph, Tory lawmakers in the House of Commons plan to introduce an amendment to a bill currently in the process of being passed, to be called the Online Safety Bill or Digital Market Bill. According to the sources handled by the newspaper, it is very likely that the new government will accept the amendment.

This initiative comes after two previous moves prompted by PayPal's censorship activity. On the one hand, officials from the Department of Culture, Media and Sports contacted the payment platform to inquire about the reasons that had led to having their service discontinued without providing explanations to its customers. PayPal merely noted that it will continue with what it calls an "acceptable use policy."

Letter from 42 legislators

On the other hand, 42 members of the House of Commons have written a public letter accusing PayPal of using "its dominant position in the market to impose private economic sanctions on organizations and individuals of whose views it disapproves and thus to restrict their ability to engage in political debate in the public square." Furthermore, the legislators claim, "there is no transparency as to by whom, or under whose influence, this decision has been taken."

The letter also states:

It’s hard to avoid construing PayPal’s actions as an orchestrated, politically-motivated move to silence critical or dissenting views on these topics within the UK, as well as those who defend people’s right to express those views, and PayPal’s decision has been condemned by the UK’s leading free speech advocacy groups, Big Brother Watch, Article 19, Index on Censorship and the Open Rights Group.

Last week, journalist Toby Young posted how PayPal, without explanation or a chance to make any changes, cut off service to Young's personal account, to his pandemic information website, and to his personal account The Daily Sceptic and the free speech advocacy organization Free Speech Union.

While speaking to The Epoch Times, Toby Young said that "this feels like an escalation in the ongoing war against free speech by Big Tech.” He also said:

It’s one thing to shut down and demonetize accounts for expressing nonconformist views; that’s nothing new, unfortunately. But in this case, PayPal has shut down the account of an organization that defends people who express non-conformist views. That’s a new low.
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