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PayPal removed multiple “gender-critical” organizations from its platforms on the grounds that they engaged in hate speech.
The payment platform and its subsidiary Venmo on Tuesday removed the accounts of at least two groups that have regularly criticized gay and transgender rights activists. This included the PayPal account of Gays Against Groomers, a self-described “coalition of gays against the sexualization, indoctrination, and medicalization of children.” PayPal also closed the accounts of the Free Speech Union and the Daily Sceptic, two websites operated by the conservative British editor Toby Young.
“PayPal has closed the accounts of the Daily Sceptic and the Free Speech Union, a new low in Big Tech’s war on free speech,” Young tweeted on Tuesday. “Not only can you not express certain views, you can’t defend people’s right to express them.”
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It is unclear if the two bans are connected, but both parties were known for criticizing gay and transgender rights activists.
“PayPal has a long-standing and consistent Acceptable Use Policy. We take action when we deem that individuals or organizations have violated this policy,” a spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. The policy includes a ban on using PayPal for “the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory or the financial exploitation of a crime.”
Gays Against Groomers is a Twitter account run by Jaimee Mitchell, a Republican political operative from Florida who identifies as gay. The account has regularly made news by posting clips critical of drag queens and the transgender community, similar to the popular account Libs of TikTok .
“We’re not scared by this,” Mitchell said during an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight . “We’re not intimidated, and we’re not going to stop.”
The Free Speech Union was founded by Young in 2020 in an attempt to counter what is known as “cancel culture.” It criticized U.K. universities for their decisions not to platform controversial speakers or their approaches to COVID-19-related policies. It took legal action against Essex University to protect two professors with gender-critical views from being fired in 2019.
