- A pro-democracy group in Hong Kong reported that PayPal HK stopped the payment process for the League of Social Democrats (LSD.)
- The group added that they were “stunned” to know this and now just have “one less way [to collect donations].”
PayPal’s Service Halt
Recently, Daily Wire, the U.S. based news publication house, found that a Terms of Service (ToS) agreement draft of PayPal has not yet been carried out. According to the ToS PayPal can fine its users $2,500 if they spread “misinformation” online. Also, the amount of fine deducted from a PayPal account.
In response with the following report, PayPal kept the point that the ToS was a mistake sent out in error. PayPal emphasized that it has no plans to fine its users. However, on October 8, 2022 National Review, an American Magazine, talked with a PayPal spokesperson who said that the ToS was sent out by mistake.
The PayPal representative said in the conversation with the Nation Review that “An AUP notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information. Paypal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy. Our teams are working to correct our policy pages. We’re sorry for the confusion this has caused.”
It must be noted that On October 12, 2022 the issue between the League of Social Democrats (LSD) and Paypal HK was reported at 3:39 a.m. (ET) through Facebook. And this news was also covered by Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) contributor, Peter Lee. He then wrote that LSD was “one of the remaining active pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong.” Although, in the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic, China made this quite harder for pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong to expand more.
In 2020, China presented the National Security Law (NSL) that made it a lot easier to prosecute protesters looking to bolster Hong Kong’s autonomy. While the HKFP report serves as the reason that pro-democracy groups like LSD can not collect donations using street booths anymore. In response, the External Vice-Chairperson of the LSD, Chow Ka-fat, told HKFP that Paypal simply said that payment services were terminated over “excessive risks.”
However, the payments giant, PayPal, did not open-up what the “excessive risks” happened to be, as Chow told the publication. He elaborated that while the group can not accept donations from the Paypal HK account, the group can still withdraw funds from the application. “It seems like even when doing business, companies have to think about who they are dealing with in advance. That sort of business freedom in the past has seemingly gone,” the LSD Vice-Chairperson further added.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/10/16/paypal-ceased-hong-kong-account-of-pro-democracy-group-report/