Censored Blogs: Choke point is the PAYMENT NETWORK

This fascinating article shifted my thinking on censorship–

Section 230 Isn’t The Problem, Payment Networks Are

A controversial blogger does a deep dive into the avenues of control for online blogging and the choke points of control:  The choke point is the PAYMENT NETWORK.  Once again.  The bankers are holding the throat of the blogging community controlling discourse.

The payment networks are more powerful than big tech.

Without the consent of all four major payment networks to stay in business, even mighty tech giants are vulnerable to lose billions of dollars in revenue.  The various agreements enforced by the four major payment networks (MasterCard, Visa, Amex, and Discover) impose rules that any business wanting to exist in the digital economy must obey. Not all these rules are written.

• MasterCard

• Visa

• Amex

• Discover

Consider a company like Patreon. They are an online crowdfunding service which handles donations from many supporters to many online content creators. Patreon has its own rules, uses Stripe as a payment gateway and payment processor, agrees to Stripe’s terms of service, and then Stripe coordinates with all major payment networks which each have their own set of agreements. That means every creator on Patreon must obey six different sets of rules…..

Patreon must keep Stripe happy to stay in business, and Stripe must keep all four payment networks happy to stay in business.  If any one of MasterCard, Visa, Amex, or Discover pass a rule, then it affects the entire downstream ecosystem. …

I do not claim it is MasterCard’s fault that Twitter banned Trump.  I am sure Twitter makes many stupid decisions all on its own.  The problem is that these rules—how they are enforced, the secrecy in which they are enforced, and unappealable finality of these decisions—stifle [SP edit–Free Speech]. …

Nobody knows what “Violation of Standards” means.

These blocklists, and the risk management factors which decide who goes on them, are “trade secrets” and you cannot even sue to figure out why you were added to them.  New Project 2 was blacklisted for “Violation of Standards”, which prohibits it from even using so-called high-risk processors. Nobody knows what “Violation of Standards” means.

Blogger banned from Paypal.  Therefore cannot use Uber…

PayPal has not been mentioned so far, but rest assured they are one of the most egregious and will drop you first.  BitChute, a video platform competing with YouTube, was banned from PayPal.  ZeroHedge itself is banned from using PayPal.  To this day, because of my association with the Kiwi Farms, I cannot use the Uber app to get a taxi because Uber uses PayPal to process credit cards and I am banned from PayPal.

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What to do?

Cryptocurrencies bypass the payment network bottleneck now.

The more people who know how to transact in cryptocurrency, the freer the Internet will be. Sites like buybitcoinworldwide.com (not an affiliate url) contain simple guides on how to get into the ecosystem regardless of your country.  You do not have to invest any money in. Just learn how crypto works, how to get it, and how to send it. That knowledge cannot be taken away from you—and it might prove useful, sooner rather than later.

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Request of Chris (and Adam at Wealthion).  If this is of interest, I would bet that VTGothic and DaveF (and some others) could help set up a crypto payment system.