Comment by acdha | Hacker News Reader

Comment by acdha | Hacker News Reader

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I realize your focus is defending an ideological ally but your zeal is leading you to make two key omissions:

1. PayPal is not synonymous with free speech. His ability to speak and have his views heard by anyone who wants to doesn’t appear to be impeded in any way. A key difference between that and the other companies you mentioned is that you don’t usually have a choice about, say, your water company because physical infrastructure doesn’t make that easy. In contrast, there are many options for sending money and PayPal can interchangeably be replaced with a variety of services.

2. PayPal didn’t exercise their right to freely choose who they associate with because he’s right wing, but rather because he violated their policy about COVID misinformation: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/paypal-free-speech-union-...

That’s a pretty big distinction: he could continue doing everything he’s been doing except for lying about health and safety, and PayPal would be happy to continue processing money for him.

He's not my ideological ally. Rather, I oppose the libertarian doctrine that firms may act as they like. When a bakery refused to supply a cake with a message promoting same sex marriage, I supported the customer.

On your second point, if this is the case then why did Paypal also ban the Free Speech Union?

> On your second point, if this is the case then why did Paypal also ban the Free Speech Union?

I’d assume these were connected given their history of similar dubious claims re:school safety but I think the larger point is remembering that these groups profit from tapping into larger political trends – consider how much money is being spent promoting the idea of “cancel culture” and using it to avoid intellectual engagement with criticism – and so I’d be skeptical that the simple narrative being presented is full and accurate.

The Free Speech Union is just a silly cryptofascist support group, it has nothing to do with free speech.

He's actually not lying about health and safety, and not spreading COVID misinformation either. His work has been dedicated to combating COVID misinformation, in fact. Unfortunately American companies seem to define "misinformation" as anything that contradicts the pronouncements of government agencies, so anyone trying to fact check them or correct them when they get it wrong is bound to be treated in that way. They shut down UsForThem too which is a group that campaigned against school closures. Most people recognize now that closing the schools wasn't a good move.

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