A Conservative MP has said that PayPal should not be allowed to ban people based on their views or their politics.
Speaking to Talk Radio’s David Bull, Sally-Ann Hart said freedom of speech must be protected and online platforms shouldn’t be allowed to demonetise people they disagree with.
She said:
“These are internationally recognised human rights and we can’t allow platforms to just basically demonetise organisations or individuals they just don’t agree with. It’s just unacceptable.”
It is unacceptable, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for the government to do something about it. The PayPal account for The Richie Allen Show was deleted last year.
I reported the company to the Financial Conduct Authority. Six months later the regulator wrote to me to say that PayPal would not explain to them why I had been deleted and that there was nothing they could do.
Five years ago, YouTube demonetised the original channel for The Richie Allen Show. The channel had more than 100,000 subscribers and had just begun to bring in around £2,000 a month in revenue.
I was delighted. At the time I thought (naively) that at such a rate of growth, I wouldn’t need to ask my listeners to support the show much longer. Before I could get too excited, Google demonetised my channel and deleted it a week later.
It sickened me at the time. My crime was interviewing guests and discussing topics that are never heard on the legacy media.
And of course, I’m not the only person it has happened to.
Kudos to Sally-Ann Hart for highlighting it.
But nothing will change.
In fact, it’s going to get worse, isn’t it?
Tory MP Sally-Ann Hart wants to make it illegal for PayPal to withdraw service from people on political grounds.
"We must do whatever we can to protect freedom of speech and we can't let online platforms demonetise people they don't agree with."@drdavidbull | @SallyAnn1066 pic.twitter.com/oUt6mUxnrb
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) November 3, 2022
