In my last post, I linked to this article called “The books are already burning” on how retailers are beginning to remove books on some controversial, debatable topics because they’re viewed as too dangerous.

I just read another article along the same lines – “Get ready for the ‘No-Buy’ List” this time looking at PayPal. Again, this is a guest post at Bari Weiss’s blog, and comes from David Sacks, the former COO of PayPal. Here are some key quotes (but read the whole thing):

When I helped create PayPal in 1999, it was in furtherance of a revolutionary idea. No longer would ordinary people be dependent on large financial institutions to start a business.

Our democratized payment system caught fire and grew exponentially with millions of users who appreciated its ease and simplicity. Traditional banks were too slow and bureaucratic to adapt. Instead, the revolution we spawned two decades ago inspired new startups like Ally, Chime, Square, and Stripe, which have further expanded participation in the financial system.

But now PayPal is turning its back on its original mission. It is now leading the charge to restrict participation by those it deems unworthy.

First, in January, PayPal blocked a Christian crowdfunding site that raised money to bring demonstrators to Washington on January 6. Then, in February, PayPal announced that it was working with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to ban users from the platform. This week the company announced it is partnering with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to investigate and shut down accounts that the ADL considers too extreme.

Why is this a problem? Isn’t it perfectly reasonable to make sure bad actors don’t fund hate through these platforms?

… The new ADL opposed the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh because of his “hostility to reproductive freedom.” … It opposed Trump’s executive order banning Critical Race Theory in federal government training. And it called for Fox News to fire Tucker Carlson for his comments on immigration.

Whether one agrees with any of these positions is beside the point. The point is that the ADL, like the SPLC, now weighs in on issues far beyond its original purview.

Just as there is no set definition of “hate speech” that everyone agrees upon, the definition of a “hate group” is nebulous and ripe for overuse by those with an agenda. So it should come as no surprise that the ever-increasing list of suspects has grown from unquestionable hate groups, like neo-nazis and the KKK, to organizations who espouse socially conservative views, like the Family Research Council, religious liberty advocates, and even groups concerned with election integrity.

…I have no desire to defend genuinely hateful or extremist groups. Indeed, when I was COO at PayPal, we regularly worked with law enforcement to restrict illegal activity on our platform. But we are talking about something very different here: shutting down people and organizations that express views that are entirely lawful, even if they are unpopular in Silicon Valley.

As with the censorship of speech, financial deplatforming often begins as something that seems narrow and reasonable — who wouldn’t want to ban the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys? But once the power is granted, it metastasizes into widespread use.

The article goes on to look at how speech restrictions are already being used to restrict dissemination of certain views, and how financial restrictions appear headed in a similar direction. It concludes in part:

Locking them out of the financial economy is worse [than kicking them off of social media]: It deprives them of the right to make a living.

Also, as a follow up to the Shrier post linked above, it’s worth noting that Target has banned her books again; apparently it has released a new set of guidelines about what books it will carry, reserving the right to remove any book that “has the potential to cause harm to an individual or group of people…”

Is it time to panic?

As a Christian, I’m not overly alarmed by this. My trust and hope is in God, and my citizenship is first in His kingdom, not any earthly country. No book banning or closure of financial systems can prevent God from accomplishing His plans, and my future is already secure in His hands.

However, these trends do make me very concerned for the future of the United States of America. Our liberal democracy has been built in part on the Bill of Rights, including free speech, a free press, and freedom of religion. We seem to be rapidly moving away from a commitment to these fundamental rights towards, instead, the idea that everyone has the right to feel safe, validated, and approved, even if that means we have to restrict people’s speech and beliefs. These views, if left unchecked, will destroy the freedoms which have helped our country to accomplish so much and which have helped millions to rise out of poverty and hardship. That saddens me, and I hope we can turn the tide – though my greatest hope is in the new heavens and the new earth that God will bring after Christ comes again.