It appears as though a leading cybersecurity news platform, The Hacker News, has been “de-platformed” by Paypal, leading many to point out that Bitcoin could be an obvious solution to the issue. Specifically, Paypal will hold their funds for 180 days and ban all accounts associated with the platform.
While the outlet did not state that they would necessarily turn to cryptocurrency; the incident does highlight the fact that there is a use case for Bitcoin and respected publications. Paypal has not as of yet commented publicly on the matter.
Tweets Fired
The news was unleashed in a series of tweets from the official Twitter account of The Hacker News, which is @TheHackerNews. The tweets spoke about how the staff was frustrated at Paypal, and specifically frustrated at their lack of an explanation. The tweets are below:
That’s so much frustrating.@PayPal has permanently banned all of our accounts without mentioning any reason and hold wallet funds wrongly for 180 days.
Upon asking, @AskPayPal also refused to share any details.
— The Hacker News (@TheHackersNews) December 29, 2018
That’s so much frustrating.@PayPal has permanently banned all of our accounts without mentioning any reason and hold wallet funds wrongly for 180 days.
Upon asking, @AskPayPal also refused to share any details.
— The Hacker News (@TheHackersNews) December 29, 2018
It’s important to note that The Hacker News is a website with a large following. For example, its Twitter following has over 500,000 followers. The news spread quickly, and the tweets went viral after several hours. The tweets now have hundreds of retweets and likes.
It’s also important to note that the company quoted Paypal as stating: “Specific reasons for such a decision is proprietary & it is not released since that could impair PayPal’s ability to do business in a safe and secure manner”. The Hacker News Twitter account hinted that this explanation was inadequate, stating: “You have to mention at least one valid reason.”
Bigger Issue
This isn’t the first time that platforms have “de-platformed” certain individuals or outlets for various reasons. For example, Patreon has severed ties with Sargon of Akkad, a well-known British Youtuber and political commentator, and have explained that they have done so because he violated their hate speech guidelines. Another individual that was promptly removed from the platform for similar reasons was Milo Yiannapolous.
Many have sided with Sargon of Akkad, including members of the “Intellectual Dark Web”, a group of well-known and successful intellectuals and Youtubers such as Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin. As a result, Peterson specifically has turned to Bitcoin.
On Twitter, many have suggested that The Hacker News accept Bitcoin donations as well, and it will be interesting to see whether more mass adoption occurs with cryptocurrency due to events and incidents such as this one.
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