Megan Fox covers the Stripe 180 on PJ Media:
Every time reports of conservatives being silenced on social media platforms come out, a large percentage of libertarians shout, “but private companies can serve whoever they want! Build your own platforms.” It is a constant criticism of anyone saying that social media and Silicon Valley need regulation or that political viewpoints need protection under the law. But when marginalized voices create their own platforms, the puppet masters of Silicon Valley who control all the infrastructure shut them down.
Vox Day, a contributor at BitChute and popular author of SJWs Always Double Down, told PJM, “The denial of payment services on ideological grounds is a significant blow to the libertarian idea that private companies can be permitted to operate without government oversight.” Day has significant experience being deplatformed on the major social media sites….
Stripe claimed in their notice of cancellation to Bitchute founder Ray Vahey that it was their “financial partners” who objected to Bitchute’s business model. “We are politically neutral, and have many creators from across the political spectrum,” Vahey told PJM. “Our site is still operational in terms of video streaming, but we have not been able to accept money since the Stripe termination,” he explained. “They gave us only 5 days notice, even though our account was in good standing and we had not broken any of their rules or laws or even had any customer complaints.”
The notice he received from Stripe was strange, filled with rambling excuses for termination with no specifics. Stripe employee “Gus” wrote:
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to overturn our decision regarding your account. Our financial partners have some fairly strict limitations on the type of businesses we can work with, and sadly your business type falls into a category which our financial partners consider to be high-risk. I’m truly sorry about that… this is a restriction imposed upon us directly from our financial partners, who use have [sic] an archaic and frankly antiquated view of non-traditional businesses.
Stripe refuses to say who the “financial partners” are. PJM also reached out to Stripe but received no response.
This tends to indicate the situation is as I suspected. Stripe is looking to cash in, so they are doing whatever their investors and prospective buyers want them to do. Which, in this case, is shutting down the services that allow people to bypass both the ideological gatekeepers as well as the financial gatekeepers.
It’s not an accident that they are attempting to shut down the crowdfunding sites, beginning with the alternative ones. That’s primarily what this is about. Rest assured, they have their sights on Kickstarter and Indie-Go-Go too.