Another business has been permanently banned from using PayPal, this time it’s an account associated with The Hacker News. On December 29th, 2018 the cybersecurity news outlet posted two tweets online informing their audience that their account with PayPal had been permanently banned.
Instead of giving a valid reason, company says “specific reasons for such a decision is proprietary & it is not released since that could impair PayPal’s ability to do business in a safe and secure manner”
Seriously @PayPal????
You have to mention at least one valid reason.
— The Hacker News (@TheHackersNews) December 29, 2018
If you’re unable to read the tweets, it states that their funds from the wallet are being held fro 180 days by PayPal, and that the reason for the closure is “proprietary and it is not released since that could impair PayPal’s ability to do business in a safe and secure manner”.
According to a separate tweet, the account that was banned was one that they used to receive funds from sponsors. It was labeled as an “individual account”, but still targeted by PayPal for undisclosed reasons.
Thank you everyone for your support Happy New Year 2019 @PayPal hasn’t yet provided any reason behind the ban.
For those asking, banned account was sort of an individual account we used to receive small payments from our sponsors that should not even violate any policy. https://t.co/8Pjyr6xV77
— The Hacker News (@TheHackersNews) December 31, 2018
Some people assumed that it was because the company had “Hacker” in its name, but it was founded back in 2007 and has been around for more than a decade. The outlet is one of the biggest digital security news outlets on the web, boasting more than 2 million Facebook followers, nearly 2 million Google Plus followers, and having more than half a million followers on Twitter. They’ve been with PayPal for years, so it’s not as if the financial processor just caught wind of them.
A bunch of people suggested for The Hacker News to switch over to BitCoin for receiving payments.
They haven’t said yet what they plan on doing or how they plan on resolving the situation since PayPal won’t disclose the details. This is similar to a few other cases where PayPal has also permanently banned other businesses and individuals from using their services in a very short amount of time, including SubscribeStar and even the game developers working on Jesus Strikes Back.
According to a death metal record label that was shut down in result of getting banned from standard payment processors and PayPal, it was revealed that these bans are being handed down from the banks due to pressure from the FDIC exploiting a DOJ initiative called Operation Choke Point.
While some legislation is still in the pipeline to get these measures repealed, the bill to do so is currently hung up in a bureaucratic web. In the meantime, payment processors, credit card companies, and financial conduits like PayPal are stifling businesses and cutting off their funds.
(Thanks for the news tip The Positivist)
