Legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has welcomed updates to PayPal’s US policies on "hate" and "intolerance".
ADF wrote to the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in July, warning that PayPal’s policies could enable "politicized or unlawful debanking". At issue were PayPal’s policies on "hate", "intolerance" and "misleading information".
In its submission, ADF cited account suspensions that it alleged were motivated by customers’ lawful political views or speech.
PayPal’s US policy no longer includes the wording "the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory".
The company has removed terms that ADF described as "subjective", replacing them with a ban on transactions involving violence or discriminatory activity based on race, religion and other characteristics "protected under applicable law".
In light of the policy changes, ADF has withdrawn its objection to PayPal’s application for federal deposit insurance for its proposed US bank.
An October report by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency found that broadly worded policies at nine major US banks had disadvantaged customers based on their political, religious or social views, or lawful business activities.
The regulator acknowledged efforts by banks to curb these practices but questioned whether those changes were sufficient.
Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel at ADF, said, "Americans should never fear that their bank or financial services provider will cancel them or deny them service because of their religious beliefs or political views."
He continued, "PayPal has a history of mixing business with politics, and its customers pay the price when they are punished for holding views the company dislikes.
"Its commitments are an important step toward preventing the unfair debanking of its customers, and we’ll be watching to ensure these changes are implemented and applied fairly.
"PayPal is an industry leader, and we hope others in the financial services and banking sectors will replace subjective terms like 'hate' and 'misinformation' with clear, objective standards that protect their customers."
The revised wording appears in PayPal’s US policy. Its UK acceptable use policy still prohibits transactions involving "the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory".
