SPAM: -------------------- Start SpamAssassin results ---------------------- SPAM: This mail is probably spam. The original message has been altered SPAM: so you can recognise or block similar unwanted mail in future. SPAM: See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details. SPAM: SPAM: Content analysis details: (5.7 hits, 5 required) SPAM: Hit! (2.7 points) Subject contains lots of white space SPAM: Hit! (1.0 point) Received via an IP in dynablock.njabl.org SPAM: [RBL check: found 96.179.156.141.dynablock.njabl.org.] SPAM: Hit! (0.4 points) Received via a relay in dnsbl.njabl.org SPAM: [RBL check: found 96.179.156.141.dnsbl.njabl.org.] SPAM: Hit! (0.6 points) DNSBL: sender ip address in in a dialup block SPAM: Hit! (1.0 point) DNSBL: Received via an IP in dynablock.njabl.org SPAM: SPAM: -------------------- End of SpamAssassin results --------------------- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: PayPal penalizing opinionated liberals and conservatives Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 18:13:22 +0000 From: qx49@private To: declan@private Declan: Your Politech readers might be interested in this... I found an interesting post on Kevin Drum's washingtonmonthly.com blog about PayPal penalizing opinionated liberals and conservatives. (Warning to your conservative readers, Kevin's blog is a liberal blog, so don't follow this link if you'll be offended by the content ;-). Kevin Drum's link... http://washingtonmonthly.com/ Original story about Bill Quick's (conservative) web site being penalized by PayPal... http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/7543 Original story about TalkLeft's account being cancelled and then reinstated by PayPal... http://talkleft.com/new_archives/007988.html#007988 Kevin Drum's post on PayPal... PAYPAL BLUES....Proving that idiocy knows no ideological boundaries, PayPal has suspended the accounts of both the liberal Jeralyn Merritt and the conservative Bill Quick. Jeralyn's offense was apparently linking to a video of the beheading of Eugene Armstrong , while Bill's offense, Kafka-like, is left entirely to the imagination. As James Joyner points out, the real problem here is that PayPal is a de facto monopoly for internet payments at the moment. What's more, when one of their clerks decides he doesn't like the content of someone's site, PayPal doesn't just revoke the offending account, they frequently also freeze it. But PayPal is a bank (regardless of what they actually call themselves), and banks should be in the business of providing financial services as long as they're legal. They shouldn't be in the business of deciding what's appropriate speech and what isn't, especially when their guidelines are unclear and capriciously applied. Isn't it about time for someone to create a payment service that's a genuine payment service, not a thinly disguised website nanny? And isn't it about time for someone with more clout than a blog to expose this practice and give PayPal the bad publicity they so richly deserve? Maybe Dan Rather could do it to atone for his sins. For more about this, go to the appropriately named PayPalSucks.com and read all about it (and more). —Kevin Drum _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Mon Sep 27 2004 - 07:22:39 PDT