SO they were OK with it, until they suddenly decided when Russia ramped up the invasion - got it patreon, small invasions no problem big invasions, pull the rug.
I imagine that the page recently started receiving way more money than it ever has.
I'm aware that the timing still looks bad and won't change some people's view of the move. I'm not asking for that. Just asking for at least an ounce of nuance.
If you set yourself up as a payment gateway people will use you as a payment gateway. And what private citizens do with their money is up to them.
Funding military weapons steps on some very complicated lines about what people are allowed to spend their money on. So saying "what private citizens do with their money is up to them." is only true as far as the law says.
They're not a payment gateway for everything and anything. They can choose what activity they don't want to facilitate and they have.
> And what private citizens do with their money is up to them.
It's not. There are numerous restrictions on what private citizens can do with their money.
Yes, but those restrictions are not typically arbitrated by commercial entities but by the law.
We demand that payment gateways prevent fraud, prevent the sale of criminal or objectionable materials, prevent money laundering and prevent sending money to nations and individuals under sanction.
Having a policy of not supporting weapons purchases is on that spectrum. Just claiming people can do what they want with their money just isn’t true.
If I were to try to send money to ISIS or some other known terrorist organization they would surely step in under AMT laws, but the Ukranian defense force is last I checked not on that list (Though I'm sure Putin would love that.)
https://www.dnb.nl/en/sector-information/supervision-laws-an...
So effectively Patreon is carrying Putin's water here.
Those actions need not be official sanctions either. They can refuse to do business with another bank at their discretion.
I agree that it’s a very bad look for Patreon but it’s pretty business as usual.
I think I covered that by linking to the charter that governs this.
> Those actions need not be official sanctions either. They can refuse to do business with another bank at their discretion.
They'd have to have a pretty good reason or I would have an excellent opportunity to sue. Capricious interference with the flow of capital is frowned upon.
> I agree that it’s a very bad look for Patreon but it’s pretty business as usual.
Patreon effectively joined Putin. There is no way they will whitewash this.
I’ll concede I don’t know the Netherlands banking regulations so perhaps you do have a right to send electronic wires but what you linked doesn’t outline that.
In the US the cfpb regulates consumer rights when sending international transfers. The rights include disclosures about fees and fx and processes for adjudication of disputes but you do not have a right to send a wire.
The people are the government, when we loose sight of that we have problems. Clearly the governments around the world are unwilling to help
the US, Canada, and most of the "West" is trying very hard to make Liberty and freedom protest illegal, you can only protest some topics, and some actions by government and only with the approval of government that your protesting is OK
Because that was the experience for 90%+ of people... the less then 10% should be prosecuted, that actually committed property crimes.
Then you have Canada... which was a 100% peaceful protest.
In this case there's no time for that.