Elon Musk: ‘PayPal has become a Black Mirror episode’
Elon Musk, one of the co-founders of PayPal (PYPL), has accused the US online payments business of becoming “a Black Mirror episode” following reports the business has been banning users.
Musk, CEO of Twitter, SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA), tweeted his criticism that the company was like the dystopian TV series created by Charlie Brooker in response to an article in The Free Press that highlighted PayPal’s policy of deplatforming some of its clients.
PayPal has become a Black Mirror episode
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 13, 2022
Another PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who was the company’s CEO until 2002, described the recent debanking policies of PayPal as “totalitarian”. He told The Free Press:
According to the article, banned users received an email that told them: “You can no longer do business with PayPal.” The email continued:
The email concluded: “You’ll not be able to conduct any further business using PayPal.” Prohibited users were also informed PayPal would hold their account’s funds for 180 days after which it would email them with information on how to access their funds.
The article reported PayPal had not revealed how many accounts it has suspended or banned.
Despite Capital.com’s request for a comment from the PayPal team, there was no immediate response from the company.
Founding COO criticises current CEO
David Sacks, the founding chief operating officer (COO) of PayPal, also voiced his criticism of the company’s present CEO, Daniel Schulman. Sacks said: “The CEO has got like every woke award you can win.
PayPal has shut down accounts linked to news website Consortium News; the Free Speech Union; and lockdown sceptic blog The Daily Sceptic.
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PayPal is seen as a crypto friendly platform
In August 2021, PayPal launched its cryptocurrency service which enabled customers in the UK to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.
The company confirmed that customers can choose from four cryptocurrencies – bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), litecoin (LTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) – and could purchase as little as £1 of cryptocurrency via their PayPal accounts.
Also, in January 2022 Jose Fernandez da Ponte, senior vice-president of crypto and digital currencies at PayPal, told Bloomberg “We are exploring a stablecoin; if and when we seek to move forward, we will, of course, work closely with the relevant regulators.”
The payment company’s exploration of a stablecoin was discovered by developer Steve Moser. He found hidden code and images in PayPal’s iPhone app that indicated the company was working on a stablecoin.
The PayPal Coin will be pegged to the US dollar.
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