Software
PayPal is breaking ties with domain registrar Epic over digital currencies
PayPal terminated the account of domain registrar and web hosting firm Epik for breaching its "risk controls," causing angry letters and blog posts from Epik claiming conservative bias, Mashable said.
Seattle-based Epic is perhaps best known for its sponsorship of Gab's right-wing social media platform. The platform was blocked by its hosting firm, domain registrar, and PayPal in 2018, after it was revealed that the suspected gunman in the Pittsburgh synagogue had posted anti-Semitic tirades on Gab. In a 2018 blog post, Epik CEO Robert Monster denounced what he termed "internet censorship" on other sites.
According to Mashable, the problem that got Epic started by PayPal has to do with Epic's digital "alternative money" Masterbucks. It can be used to purchase or exchange Epik goods to US dollars, and Epik's Mashable Reports have not taken the necessary legal action to manage the digital currency.
However, in an open letter to PayPal employees dated 19 October and posted to Epik 's site, Epik Senior Vice President for Strategy and Communications Robert Davis said that PayPal's actions led to abuse of control and over-reach by a de facto monopoly and challenged the timing of PayPal's decision.
It would seem like, in a blatant attempt to censor conservative voices, PayPal stopped our payment services — only two weeks before the presidential election, Davis wrote in the post, repeating a common — but profoundly debunked — complaint about online anti-conservative bias.
Epik did not respond immediately to the request for feedback on Sunday.
In a six-page letter to Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, dated October 13, Davis writes that Epik has zero tolerance for bigotry, claims that it is a force for good in the fight against injustice, before releasing a litany of bizarre and apparently contradictory grievances about Hollywood, Hunter Biden, the Democratic Party, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Davis also argued that Epik has been attacked and branded in a horriblely unjust fashion that does not represent either his acts or his core beliefs.
A PayPal spokesperson said in a statement sent to The Verge on Sunday that PayPal has advanced risk measures in place to alert our teams to potentially aggressive behavior on our platforms. The organization separately reviews each concern and bases its actions on risk assessment and compliance with our long-standing User Agreement.
