PayPal users have noticed that the online financial hub is once again assessing a $2,500 fine against users for every violation of the Acceptable Use Policy. The revelation comes just weeks after a similar “fine print mistake.”
The current Acceptable Use Policy reinstated on October 27 states that users will be fined $2,500 for each transaction involving “the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that [are] discriminatory.”
Moreover, under the “Holds” section of the terms of service, PayPal reserves the right to hold all funds “for up to 180 days if reasonably needed to protect against the risk of liability or if you have violated our Acceptable Use Policy.”
This is not the first time PayPal has included financial penalties within its terms of service.
On October 7, the online financial conglomerate faced similar scrutiny following a Daily Wire report that said the platform punished users for pedaling “misinformation” or promoting information that poses a risk to others’ well-being.
Following the report, PayPal experienced backlash and a massive dip in its price per share. On October 10, PayPal’s stock fell over 5%, as reported by The Dallas Express.
The company quickly backed off the original “misinformation” fine, claiming it was a mistake made by a contractor.
However, critics of PayPal are again taking to Twitter to suggest the seemingly covert reintroduction of the fine is proof that the company’s original $2,500 “misinformation” fine was not a mistake.
The Hodgetwins, YouTube podcasters, tweeted, “PayPal added the $2500 fine for misinformation back to their terms after they said it was a mistake a couple weeks ago.”
“PayPal straight up lied,” added journalist Tim Pool, alongside a screenshot of the Terms of Service.
As an important aside, the current Terms of Service do not contain the word “misinformation.” However, “other forms of intolerance that may be discriminatory” is an equally subjective term, according to Jeremy Knauff in the Grit Daily.
“This is yet another case of Big Tech overreach,” he suggested.
Since the last incident, PayPal’s stock has mostly recovered. However, the company is already showing a .5% slump just 12 hours after users realized the fine was quietly added to the fine print.
