Michael Gove among Tories urging ministers to hold PayPal to account
Michael Gove among senior Tories urging ministers to hold PayPal to account after the US online payment giant abruptly cancelled the accounts of free speech campaigners
- Leading figures in Conservative Party are demanding PayPal is held to account
- Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith and Sir Graham Brady among senior Tories wanting PayPal to be accountable after cancelling a freedom of speech group
- PayPal has so far refused to say which of its rules the accounts had broken
- Last week, comedian Jack Dee and football pundit Matt Le Tissier took to social media to announce that they were closing their own PayPal accounts in protest
Leading figures in the Conservative party including Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove and Sir Graham Brady have demanded ministers hold PayPal to account after it abruptly cancelled a group which campaigns for freedom of speech.
Toby Young, who set up the Free Speech Union and the Daily Sceptic news blog said three of his PayPal accounts were closed by the American online payments giant without explanation last week for an alleged violation of its policies.
The FSU defends victims of so-called ‘cancel culture’ and academics accused of holding ‘un-woke’ opinions, while the Daily Sceptic was set up to scrutinise lockdown policies and their impact.
Michael Gove is among the leading figures in the Tory party demanding PayPal is held to account after it abruptly cancelled a group which campaigns for freedom of speech
Leading figures in the Conservative party including Iain Duncan Smith and Sir Graham Brady have demanded ministers hold PayPal to account
PayPal has so far refused to say which of its rules the accounts had broken.
Now dozens of Tory party grandees and peers from across the political divide have now written to Business Secretary Jacob Rees Mogg accusing PayPal of censorship, claiming it was ‘hard to avoid construing its actions as an orchestrated, politically-motivated move to silence critical or dissenting views’.
The letter, signed by 42 MPs and peers, warns that PayPal appears to be using ‘its dominant position in the market’ to ‘impose private economic sanctions on organisations of whose views it disapproves and thus to restrict their ability to engage in political debate in the public square’.
The politicians – who include Labour MP Graham Stringer – are urging ministers to demonstrate the Government’s commitment to free speech by demanding an explanation from PayPal for its actions.
They also call for the company to release any remaining donations or payments that it has confiscated unfairly from Mr Young’s accounts.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Mr Young said he believed his organisation’s critical stance against lockdown policies – and, in particular, how they may have negatively affected the nation’s children – prompted PayPal to shut down the accounts.
And he has likened the company’s actions to those of a despotic political regime.
PayPal has so far refused to say which of its rules the accounts had broken
Elon Musk (pictured), who made millions from the sale of PayPal to eBay, has since been trying to purchase Twitter in a bid to promote ‘free speech’
Elon Musk first founded the online financial service X.com which took off very quickly, earning more than 200,000 customers in its initial months of operation.
X.com eventually merged with Confinity – who owned PayPal – in 2000 and Musk was replaced as CEO by its founder Peter Thiel.
A re-brand of the company saw X.com change to PayPal, who later sold to eBay for $1.5billion.
Musk, still the largest shareholder in the company at the time, received $175.8million from the sale and he would later go on to co-found SpaceX in 2002 before becoming majority shareholder in Tesla Motors in 2004.
‘The withdrawal of banking services from an individual or an organisation because they aren’t toeing the right political line is something you’d expect to happen in Communist China or North Korea – but not in a supposedly free country,’ Mr Young said.
‘As the move towards a cashless society gathers speed, we need to put laws in place to stop financial services companies like PayPal from engaging in this kind of political censorship.
‘My political views, provided I don’t say anything unlawful, should be a matter of complete indifference to PayPal.’
The cancellation of the FSU’s account presents a challenge for the organisation, as around a third of its 9,500 members have their recurring membership fees processed by PayPal.
The parliamentarians have asked the Financial Conduct Authority to address the ability of operators such as PayPal to close customer’s accounts without warning, and to consider whether new laws are needed to prevent organisations from being arbitrarily ‘de-platformed’ by tech behemoths.
Last week, comedian Jack Dee and football pundit Matt Le Tissier announced that they were closing their own PayPal accounts in protest at the financial operator’s actions.
Dee, who hosts BBC Radio 4’s long-running comedy series I’m Sorry, I Haven’t A Clue, took to social media in a show of support for Mr Young’s predicament, writing: ‘I’m in the process of cancelling my PayPal account.
‘Big Tech companies that feel they can bully people for questioning mainstream groupthink don’t deserve anyone’s business.’
Le Tissier, a former England midfielder, announced on Twitter he and his wife had closed their PayPal accounts, adding: ‘Good riddance to tin-pot dictators.’
Other parliamentarians who have signed the letter include David Davis, Brexit negotiator Lord Frost and Baroness Hoey.
The US firm said last week that cancelling Mr Young’s accounts was an attempt to balance ‘protecting the ideals of tolerance, diversity and respect’ with the values of free expression.
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