On July 1st, 2018 I announced a small change to my website in this post: “A Little Change”. That change has now been reversed. As of today I have terminated this website’s association with PayPal.

A quick check will confirm that the PayPal donations buttons have been removed from my website. I have also deleted the underlying PayPal account. I am very grateful to everyone who has helped support the website in the intervening four-plus years. However, I am no longer comfortable having that corporation affiliated with my site.

Times have changed in the last four years and so has PayPal. In recent years PayPal has joined an increasing number of companies, under intense pressure from the US Government and the European Union, in the practice of supposed “policing” of activity on their services. Although the intent was relatively beguine at first, simply looking for abuse and fraud, it has unfortunately now expanded far beyond that original intent.

Paypal, and many of the other companies so involved, are now attempting to determine the “appropriateness” of specific opinions, basic information, and associations between individuals. In the United States the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of the press all protected individual rights specifically enumerated in the US Constitution’s “Bill of Rights”. Many other countries have similar rights and declarations. In addition, PayPal has now made the decision to apply this “policing” not only to their money transfer service but to the content, moderation, and operations of any web site using their services.

The terms of what PayPal considers “appropriate” are contained in what is referred to as its Acceptable Use Policy or AUP. In 2018 when I first enlisted PayPal’s services, changes to the AUPs were generally small and happened every few months. And for those that are wondering, yes I did read their entire AUP and I have reviewed the content of every revision. In the last year or so the changes have become much more frequent, much more extensive, and (in my opinion) much more draconian.

The specifics of what is contained in PayPal’s AUP is not particularly germane to my decision. What is germane to my decision is the overall level of power and authority that PayPal now asserts as its right, not only with respect to their services, but over the content, membership, and operation of my own website.

I am no longer willing to accept PayPal’s AUP and have terminated the association between that corporation and my website. I urge everyone reading this who uses PayPal’s services to carefully read the entire PayPal AUP and decide whether they want to continue their association with this corporation.