DragonI

Patreon finally banned creators advancing QAnon misinformation from its platform. Now, those same creators are using SubscribeStar, PayPal, and GoFundMe to monetize the violence-linked conspiracy theory, despite the fact that their content appears to violate these platforms’ terms of use as well.

These companies must enforce their own rules and actively condemn QAnon misinformation and hate speech on their platforms, or face being complicit in further enabling the spread of the dangerous conspiracy theory.

• Oct 7, 2020:  Facebook bans QAnon pages, groups and Instagram accounts, CBS News
• Oct 15:  YouTube Bans QAnon, YouTube
• Oct 18:  TikTok Tightens Crackdown On QAnon, Will Ban Accounts That Promote Disinformation, NPR
• Oct 22:  Patreon is banning QAnon conspiracy theorists, Business Insider

Far-Right Site Gab Ditched by Cloud Host Joyent, Suspended by Stripe Amid Synagogue Massacre

Gab, the self-declared free speech platform that has welcomed countless neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and various other far-right bigots, had its PayPal accounts terminated on Saturday after authorities named anti-Semite and alleged Gab user Robert Bowers as the suspect in a massacre of at least 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday. The backlash has reportedly continued to mount throughout the weekend, with Gab’s hosting provider Joyent notifying the site’s management its account will be suspended as of 9:00 a.m. ET on Oct. 29, and payment processor Stripe suspending transfers to Gab’s bank account “effective immediately.”

gizmodo.com|Tom McKay

• PayPal 💰
• Stripe 💰
• Joyent - host service
• Apple and Google have either prevented the site from releasing its app on their mobile stores earlier this summer
• Microsoft “terminated its Azure agreement with Gab last month”
• Gab has also tweeted it would likely be banned from both Facebook and Twitter, though both accounts remained active as of Sunday afternoon.

The Washington Post reported that Gab’s chief technology officer, Ekrem Büyükkaya, announced he was stepping down on Sunday because “attacks from the American press have been relentless for two years now and have taken a toll on me personally.” 

“Andrew Torba, the CEO of Gab, will get angry when people for call his site a white nationalist website or an alt-right website but anyone who spends time on it knows that it’s a haven for extremists,”

PayPal cuts off payments to right-wing extremists

Payments firm says its service may not be used to support groups that promote "hate, violence or racial intolerance"

www.cbsnews.com

Among the groups PayPal (PYPL) will no longer do business with is Unity and Security for America, according to civil rights group Color of Change. 

• Unity and Security for America is operated by activist Jason Kessler, an organizer of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. 
• PayPal is also cutting ties with Altright.com, a white nationalist group led by Richard Spencer.

"Regardless of the individual or organization in question, we work to ensure that our services are not used to accept payments or donations for activities that promote hate, violence or racial intolerance," PayPal said in a statement.

Other payments companies are also moving to halt business with far-right groups. Discover Financial Services (DFS) told CBS MoneyWatch that it is terminating merchant agreements with hate groups, citing the "violence incited by their extremist views."

The moves by PayPal and Discover will raise pressure on Visa (V) an MasterCard (MA) to follow suit. 

• Twitter
• Soundcloud
• Github
• Paypal

• ActBlue
• Basecamp
• Big cartel
• Box
• Business Insider
• CNN
• Cleveland.com
• Etsy
• Github
• Grubhub
• Guardian.co.uk
• HBO Now
• Iheart.com (iHeartRadio)
• Imgur
• Intercom
• Intercom.com
• Okta
• PayPal
• People.com
• Pinterest
• Playstation Network
• Recode
• Reddit
• Spotify
• Squarespace Customer Sites
• Starbucks rewards/gift cards
• Storify.com
• The Verge
• Twillo
• Twitter
• Urbandictionary.com (lol)
• Weebly
• Wired.com
• Wix Customer Sites
• Yammer
• Yelp
• Zendesk.com
• Zoho CRM
• Credit Karma
• Eventbrite
• Netflix
• NHL.com
• Fox News
• Disqus
• Shopify
• Soundcloud
• Atom.io
• Ancersty.com
• ConstantContact
• Indeed.com
• New York Times
• Weather.com
• Mashable
• WSJ.com
• time.com
• xbox.com
• dailynews.com
• Wikia
• donorschoose.org
• Wufoo.com
• Genonebiology.com
• BBC
• Elder Scrolls Online
• Eve Online
• PagerDuty
• Kayak
• youneedabudget.com
• Speed Test
• Freshbooks
• Braintree
• Blue Host
• Qualtrics
• SBNation
• Salsify.com
• Zillow.com
• nimbleschedule.com

eBay is first Valley giant to comply with Kremlin server law

pando.com

The Kremlin has been tightening the screws on Russia’s once-anarchic Internet space, and Pierre Omidyar’s eBay has reportedly become the first Silicon Valley company to step forward and agree to the Kremlin’s top demand: storing Russian users’ data on servers in Russian territory, where it can be more easily accessed by the state security services.

According to the Russian daily Kommersant, eBay’s head of Russia operations, Vladimir Dolgov, met earlier this month with the deputy head of Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin agency responsible for monitoring and censoring media, and agreed to begin transferring Russian users’ data from its Switzerland servers into Russia proper. (Roskomnadzor is the same Kremlin agency that shut down my defunct satirical Moscow newspaper, “The eXile,” in 2008.)

The Russian newspaper reports that eBay’s PayPal division, which will be spun off this year, also sent a representative to the meeting with Roskomnadzor, and “expressed the same position on this matter as eBay.”

Billionaire publisher Pierre Omidyar, the chairman of eBay, has been critical of government intrusion on personal privacy, and has said that he launched The Intercept and First Look Media inspired by Edward Snowden’s cache of NSA secrets. On the other hand, Omidyar publicly approved of PayPal’s 2010 decision to cut off funding for WikiLeaks in order not to antagonize US government authorities. Omidyar wrote at the time that although he valued the principles of freedom of expression and privacy, “executives have a fiduciary duty to do what’s best for their shareholders.”

Being the first American company to comply with the Kremlin’s law on storing Russian user data in Russia is consistent with Omidyar’s shareholder-first philosophy. Russia represents one of the largest potential growth markets for eBay, sanctions not withstanding. In the last half of 2014, eBay recorded 3.7 million Russian users. Ebay hasn’t yet announced if it plans to rent Russian servers or build its own on Russian territory. According to iKS Consulting, the Russian data server market grew 28% in 2013, featuring over 170 major data server centers — this before the new law was voted on.

 Russia is a key market in eBay’s growth strategy, in spite of western sanctions.

While these may seem like contradictory positions to those looking for a consistent political conspiracy — collaborating with the Kremlin while collaborating with the US government in Ukraine; supporting journalism based on Snowden’s leaks while also supporting a US government crackdown on WikiLeaks and prosecuting the PayPay14 — there is a rather simple explanation, to the extent that Omidyar has a coherent plan: It’s strictly business, Sonny.

gigaom.com

Companies such as Google, PayPal, Facebook and Microsoft have teamed up to create a standard to help boost email security. They are part of a working group to create the DMARC standard, for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance. It’s aimed at authenticating email to stop the spread of email that looks like it’s from a legitimate sender but is really an attempt to get someone to visit a malicious web site and enter his passwords.