The Left suffers a setback in its war on the freedom of speech. My latest in FrontPage:
When a neo-Nazi psychopath plowed his car into a crowd of Leftist protesters in Charlottesville, the Left saw a golden opportunity to use the moment as its Reichstag Fire, and indulge its increasingly obvious authoritarian tendencies. But when they came after Jihad Watch, they overreached.
On Saturday afternoon, the Soros-funded hard-Left website ProPublica published a hit piece calling upon PayPal and other new media giants to block Jihad Watch and other groups that have been defamed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as “hate groups.” ProPublica’s Lauren Kirchner complained that Jihad Watch’s “designation as a hate site hasn’t stopped tech companies — including PayPal, Amazon and Newsmax — from maintaining partnerships with Jihad Watch that help to sustain it financially. PayPal facilitates donations to the site. Newsmax — the online news network run by President Donald Trump’s close friend Chris Ruddy — pays Jihad Watch in return for users clicking on its headlines. Until recently, Amazon allowed Jihad Watch to participate in a program that promised a cut of any book sales that the site generated. All three companies have policies that say they don’t do business with hate groups.”
The Left media said “Jump,” and PayPal immediately said “How high?” Just hours after the ProPublica piece appeared, PayPal blocked Jihad Watch. I received an email early Saturday evening from PayPal’s Ronita Murray, saying: “Due to the nature of your activities, we have chosen to discontinue service to you in accordance with PayPal’s User Agreement. As a result, we have placed a permanent limitation on your account.”
What was unacceptable about the “nature of [my] activities”? PayPal didn’t say.
Inside my PayPal account was a further notice: “When you signed up for your PayPal account, you agreed to our User Agreement and Acceptable Use Policy. Because some of your recent transactions violated this policy, we’ve had to permanently limit your account….This limitation cannot be appealed.”
Nothing about my recent transactions was actually any different from any of my other transactions over the years, and these vague messages illustrated the Kafkaesque nature of this Leftist enterprise: PayPal, like the SPLC itself, was acting as judge, jury and executioner. No discussion, no debate, no opposing view, no appeal was possible. The SPLC never contacts its targets to ask them to respond to the charges that they’re “hate groups”; it simply hands down its ruling, which the establishment media uncritically accepts, and that’s that.
But after banning Jihad Watch, PayPal encountered a crowd of free citizens. PayPal was inundated with emails and tweets denouncing its ready capitulation to Leftist attempts to delegitimize and silence all dissent. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people canceled their PayPal accounts.
And so PayPal quickly came to realize that the power of the people is not vested solely in the Leftist thugs who assert themselves ever more aggressively on America’s streets. PayPal discovered that America is still full of patriots who don’t wish to accept the Left’s lie that opposing jihad terror and Sharia oppression constitutes “Islamophobia,” which is worse than jihad terror itself.
On Monday evening, I received this from PayPal:
Effective 08/21/2017, the limitation applied to your account associated with https://www.jihadwatch.org pursuant to our User Agreement was removed. Your services are being reinstated.
PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy in our User Agreement prohibits individuals and groups from using PayPal for activities that promote hate, violence, or racial intolerance. If we become aware of a website or organization using our services that may violate our polices [sic], our dedicated team of professionals conducts a thorough review. Ultimately, a decision is made and communicated to the organization. In this instance, we have made the determination to lift the limitation applied to your account associated with the Acceptable Use Policy.
What made Jihad Watch no longer a “hate site”? The voices of free people.
Of course, the Left’s war on the freedom of speech isn’t over. There is no doubt that the Left will continue to try to cut the ground out from under those who dissent from its agenda. But this is a victory over the Left’s totalitarian steamroller.
I have no intention of restoring the PayPal buttons on Jihad Watch. I know where they stand now, and do not intend to place myself at their mercy again. But nonetheless, this is a victory. Free people still exist in the United States, and the fascists who call themselves anti-fascists will not prevail.
Guest says
Congratulations Mr. Spencer. I am happy to see that the will of the people and reason has won this fight
yaniv says
That’s nice, I’m happy they came around, but I started paying my freelancers (about $5K / month) with Transferwise, actaully saves them nice percentage. Just needed a few minutes to find the alternative after they attacked free speech.
http://fitsmallbusiness.com/paypal-alternatives/
John says
Their facebook about blurb: “From the people who built Skype & PayPal. Join the revolution” I can’t see using them as being very revolutionary.
Stand Tall says
Thanks for sharing yaniv…good to know for those who are sick and tired of crap like Paypal
epistemology says
Yes it’s a capital V for victory. Unity is strength and we made it, We united and protested and PayPal gave in, they realized that their decision was wrong. But PayPal isn’t the real culprit, don’t get me wrong I have no intention of exonerating those people entirely. But PayPal is just a company and companies act on supply and demand.
The real culprits are these traitors like the ProPublica people who want to destroy our wonderful free Western societies who tread our values in the mud who have no respect for freedom of speech and who suck up to beings who hardly deserve to be called humans as they adhere to a perverted inhuman law called sharia and claim that a child rapist and anti-Semitic serial killer is the best of all human beings. If people read that in a medical record they’d say they all belong in a lunatics asylum, the world hasn’t got enough asylums to accommodate them all, but as this pervert is the founder of the so-called religion of peace, his followers can always claim to be victimized and anybody who criticizes them is a hate monger.
As the great British writer Melanie Phillips put it “The world turned upside down”.
This is a battle won, but the war isn’t over and our enemies will strike again, Lauren Kirchner won’t repent and retire. The fight must go on.
Peacemaker says
What if both letiest and jihadis demand Paypal eliminate all unbeliever accounts ?
What if ProPublica is not traitor and Paypal is just inline with their position on all anti-jihad and all anti left organization ?
What if Paypal is sending his top actor/actress to play victims after Jihad Watch-Paypal incident ?
epistemology says
I think that is pretty unrealistic. Don’t forget the ProPublica people are no real Muslims, they’re only apologists. They’re as evil as the Muslims themselves that’s for sure. As I said PayPal is a profit-oriented company and they act accordingly to supply and demand, that’s all they care about. Whereas ProPublica is highly politicized and the people are keen on destroying the West.
In my letter to PayPal which I published here as a comment I called Lauren Kirchner an irresponsible and stupid woman, I chose my words carefully.. Here I can call her what she really is, irresponsible and stupid are true characteristics of course but furthermore she’s an evil scumbag.
We’ve learned one important lesson: we can achieve something, we have an impact, if and when we unite and Robert is able to mobilize a lot of people and that’s the good news.
Jack Diamond says
PayPal still has ACT for America banned.
Benedict says
It looks like PayPal wants to promote hate against Jihad Watch? Maybe PayPal should prohibit its own activity?
Irene Brekelmans says
Like epistemology says, the war is not over yet. Pay pal I think, did not change their mind really , it was loosing accounts, so money. And Liatris Spicata, if you did not get an answer from Robert Spencer, I am sure you will, as he never avoided answers or debates. As you got a sour taste in your mouth, our mouths are full of sournesses. We can’t even spit it out, as we don’t have freedom of speech any more. Islam is not a religion any way, but has only misery to bring us, and you should have a good look at the Linda Sarsours and lauren Kirchners of today. These women try to be the prime donna’s of today.
And have a good look at what is really happening and take a good look at yourself, I would say.
Georg says
So sick and tired of the lack of respect for Robert’s scholarship. I went to school with a bunch of these dime-a-dozen Kirchner-types with their impossible inferiority-superiority complexes and had to sit quietly as they threatened this, that, and the other with their masturbatory odes to themselves and one another. It really is something of a plague on campuses. I remember sifting through yearbooks and one can see by the clothing, postures, facial expressions, and other not-so-tangibles that somewhere in the late 90s everybody became a star. Except that nobody had. Apart from a the few stars, as there always have been and always will be. Would love nothing more than to see Robert and her square off in an IQ test followed by an extensive exam on Islam. After getting the results it’d be nice to read her essay on why it is she came to believe she had something to teach Robert.
Some of us don’t yearn for a progress à la Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Malaysia, Syria, Mindanao, Banda Aceh or even Turkey, Molenbeek or Rotherham. That is our right.
WorkingClassPost says
PayPal is done with for now at least, so my concern is that propublica will continue their activities, with even more spite than before they were smacked down.
Aren’t they already in collaboration with Google? So what on earth are they saying in private? Nasty, slanderous stuff to be sure, and stuff that you will have no recourse to challenge or defend.
The current mobilization of your readership would do well to contact Google now, pointing to the actions of PayPal in refuting the libel against JW, and politely demand that Google discard propublica and SPLC as reliable arbiters of online, whatever it is they profess to be.
Both are clearly politically motivated and therefore unfitting to assess conservative, or any other contrary political viewpoint. They have now been exposed as using the serious charge of hate speech, simply to further their own political agenda.
Counter terrorism and national security are not, and should never be, subject to political bias, but propublica and SPLC has each demonstrated that they are incapable of unprejudiced reporting.
In short, anyone this side of Stalin will be designated far-right by them.
gravenimage says
Robert Spencer: Overreach: PayPal Bans Jihad Watch, Then Backs Down
…………………..
Bravo to everyone who fought this!
chris says
The “Donate” page did not seem to offer a Paypal option.
I wanted to test their new inclusiveness. :0)
D Austin says
Joni Turner, a highly respected San Diego litigation attorney, has announced her plans to file a criminal & civil lawsuit against CNN on behalf of the American People that are being targeted as “Radical Terrorists” in their own country.
She announced her plans to file a class action lawsuit against CNN, stating “I’m determined to use my Legal Career to hold CNN and Southern Poverty and Law Center Responsible for Criminal Targeting of Americans! Join the Fight!”
She had been observing how media outlets, specifically CNN, was deliberately inciting violence by groups such as Antifa, which she refers to as the “alt-left”, against conservatives across the country, she kept looking for a way to hold them legally accountable, so she started researching cyber bullying and menacing laws, and she thinks she can prove in a court of law that CNN, working directly with SPLC, to the point where they even used the SPLC hate map to target conservative groups before taking the map down four hours later, that ” CNN is conducting a covert civil war against the American people and this can be felony.”
Menacing Law and Legal Definition: “Menacing is a crime governed by state laws, which vary by state, but typically involves displaying a weapon or a course of conduct that intentionally places another person in reasonable fear of physical injury or death.”
Harassment Law and Legal Definition: “Harassment is governed by state laws, which vary by state, but is generally defined as a course of conduct which annoys, threatens, intimidates, alarms, or puts a person in fear of their safety.”
Cyberbullying, via Find Law: The term “cyberbullying” refers to the use of Internet and/or mobile technology to harass, intimidate, or cause harm to another.”
http://allnewspipeline.com/Class_Action_Lawsuit_Against_CNN.php
Lydia says
Awesome!!! A local too.
( :
I just found this on the website “The Christian Post” about a guys videos being flagged for no other reason than being Christian, by youtube:
See the article for today on that site above titled
“YouTube Just Demonetized Hundreds of Our Videos”
WorkingClassPost says
Thanks for the link.
I hope to follow this with great interest.
AH says
When is someone going to sue the SPLC for defamation for unwarranted labeling as a hate group?
Karen says
I’m so grateful to hear this, and it gives me a little hope for the future. But I’m going to continue to eschew PayPal. I’m sick of rich, powerful bullies, and can easily live without PayPal.
They don’t seem like a Pal anymore.
Charles Martel Jr. says
I read about this in the daily caller. Right above the article was a story about 10 demands by BLM Kentucky. It was a nasty hateful racist list so stupid you’d think it was written by a 4 th grader.
At the bottom of the article was a request for donations via PayPal.
Lynda says
Paypal cancelled accounts because they were manipulated to do so by ProPublica. Secondary and Tertiary targeting has been an effective intimidation method of animal rights organizations for decades. I’m glad Paypal reinstated the Jihad Watch account but a shame they couldn’t extend an apology.
Could everyone please watch video footage of the Charlottesville “car ramming” incident before they repeat “a neo-Nazi psychopath plowed his car into a crowd of Leftist protesters”?
This is the Left narrative, and it is wrong. Field ran into the back of a car which ran into the back of a car which hit the protesters. He may have caused the accident but it was clearly not a deliberate act.
I can understand the Right’s reluctance to defend someone with such a repugnant political opinion, but it’s wrong to be silent. Please watch the videos, and note the type and colour of the three cars involved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2qwrJbs180
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4MKwzPYrbk
gravenimage says
Huh–first I have heard of this claim. I will check it out.
tim gallagher says
Good to hear about this win over the left’s attempt to stifle Jihad Watch’s attempt to get the truth out there about Islam. Are your conservative politicians in the USA aware of this attempted censorship or are they oblivious to the situation? Surely they should be getting involved and pulling Paypal, facebook, et al, into line and telling them to stop shutting freedom of speech by groups like Jihad Watch down. Or is that not something they can do? Anyway, it’s a good win. I get sick of the fascist left, and their Muslim friends, winning. It’s very annoying and also very dangerous.
Richard says
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/08/22/paypal-tries-to-ban-conservative-websites-and-the-internet-responds-swiftly/am
I can open a new PayPal account now. Great victory ..
Richard
Arthur says
Dear Pay Pal,
The best way to express my feelings is in a song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3ceb5OVG7k
Stand Tall says
Thumbs up
Josh says
Just donated $20 for the first time, so I think this strategy backfired on the fascist left…
Ade says
Not out of the woods by a long stretch .. God bless Robert Spencer
adams says
I cancelled my PAYPAL account as soon as I read the article . How many more thousands did the same I wonder . i shall not be using PP any more . They are the enemy now !
Creole Gumbo says
I have no intention of restoring the PayPal buttons on Jihad Watch.
YES!!
Yohanan says
Spencer’ current version of this post is apparently revision of earlier version. Among changes Spencer dropped the name of the signature on the PayPal turnabout. Too bad the many earlier comments were not carried forward in the revision but lost.
Spencer’s Reichstag fire allegory is incorrect and distasteful for many reasons:
* Many historians think the 27 Feb 1933 Reichstag arson was a Nazi false flag operation. (The counterprotesters did not ram the car into their Charlottesville protesters or incite the neo-Nazi driver.)
* The Nazis enforced the 28 Feb 1933 Reichstag Fire Decree giving the Nazi government emergency powers of suppression. (PayPal and SPLC have no such power or government monopoly on laws or web. Wild off the wall hyperbole.)
* There seems to a American consensus of abhorrence at the neo-nazi also among conservative voices and leaders. Robert Spencer distanced JW from the charlottesville neo-Nazi demonstrators, but I missed stronger words that one could hope to hear from moral wise voice.
* The limits of free speech, definition of hate incitement and identifications of fascism are big issues and old news in US.
* Somewhere in JW fundraising Spencer wrote that the left is “awash in funds”. However, the right and JW would hardly be bereft of funds without PayPal…
As a reader who cancelled paypal account over this, I’m happy at PayPal’s reversal. But not to get carried away…
RICHARD CANARY says
Seems to me anyone who trusts PayPal any longer is foolish, stupid, or in agreement with PayPal’s dishonest dealings for politcal purposes.
If PayPal wants to come clean, and state the fact that they stand against the ideals of America, and those who defend them, fine. But don’t hold your breath.
I’m sure that many thousands of others agree with that.
Charles says
I left this post on the Israeli Defense Forces youtube channel on your behalf over a day ago, just before the PayPal ban was lifted:
There is a new war against free speech. The ADL and the SPLC, are “non-profit”, tax exempt organizations chartered to expose political enemies whom they categorize as a “hate group”, (sometimes justly, often not). These organizations conflate genuine racists, and anti-semites with non-racists whom they politically oppose, thus impugning reputations by false association. They are very powerful well capitalized foundations with hundreds of millions of dollars from donors, (much of it by proxy untraceable patrons with political motives). Recently, a website run by Robert Spencer called Jihad Watch, that is critical of Islamic doctrine, sharia law, and terrorism, was labeled as a hate group by SPLC, and its fiscal sources of revenue (PayPal) were terminated. It is now a crime on social media to criticize Islam or its doctrines. That means that the Quran, and the second holiest book in Islam, the Hadith of Bukhari are protected speech:
“Bukhari (52:177) – Allah’s Apostle said, “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”. This same Hadith is referenced and enshrined in the official charter of Hamas.
If, either by state or by corporate media injunction, it is considered a hate crime to criticize Islamic doctrine or liturgy, then we will protect it, especially if we want to survive financially and feed our families.
D Austin says
Kind of leave a person wondering why American Bolshevik self-hating Jews at the ADL would protect an ideology that promotes, “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”.
RICHARD CANARY says
One thing that really bothers me is that PayPal has been dishonest with their business partners/clients by lieing about the clients’ activities. PayPal has become a part of a dishonest political movement.
PayPal has our credit card info and cc passwards, those three or four digits on the back of our cards. Why does anyone continue to trust a company with their crfedit cards after such a display of duplicity and dishonesty?
The same day that PayPal banned Pamella Geller and Jihad Watch, I protested by attempting to close my PayPal account, but was refused because I have monthly recurring payments designated on my account.
Interestingly enough, that same day, my credit card was used by someone to make an illegal transfer of $646.00 paid to Nike. My bank caught the “unusual” activity on my card and contacted me.
I WONDER WHO TRIED TO MAKE THAT PURCHASE. I WONDER HOW FAR PAYPAY WILL GO — OR HAS GONE — IN PayBack TO CUSTOMERS WHO DISAGREE WITH THEIR STRONG-ARM, DISHONEST DEALINGS.
sophie says
Hello forum and Mr. Robert Spencer, I have never made a comment here, Please, i wish to say something.It is of th e utmost urgency for the good of humanity that everyone that supports Jihad watch in any way have pure motivation and less ego.That is i mean to say nothing but the survival of civilization as dissatisfactory as it is right now is at stake. and small or more personal issues or arguments should be given more leeway or compassion. Mr . spencer , whom i do not know personally i think, has taken on a tremendous job and responsibility .If Mr. Spencer works from a knows;enable, erudite scholars position and keeps the good of humanity as a whole in his heart than we must do the same.The work dis facing nothing shot tot Messianic Islamic Fascism.Whether Shia or Sunni .
Without reform of the Quran or Hadiths this will continue.
Now , i am an official 9/11 world trade survivor in the medical program i live here at ground zero. My operatic and acting career was waylaid by sickness chronic illness from the toxic air. i have Muslim friend who choose to ignore what is ignoble in the qURAN OR ARE JUST NOT RELIGIOUS. THERE IS NOTHING I DID NOT SEE DURING 9/11 INCLUDING WATCHING PAMELA GELLER SPEAK. IM A PRACTICING BUDDHIST BORN JEWISH. IM JUST LETTING YOU KNOW SOME BACKGROUND. I DO KNOW THE MOST CRUCIAL (sorry for the caps I’m a bit dyslexic) time is the next few years well into 2022.(Political astrology) both western and eastern. I would highly suggest people understand we are all sentient beings on this planet and a little compassion for each other goes a long way when reviewing , revealing, studying and considering the facts and possibilities and Mr. Spencers hard work.I hope i have contributed something towards a more honorable discussion here
sophie says
oh dear my dyslexia spelling. i do hope you can make out what i was saying . my apologies. lets see
the sentence the work we are facing is nothing short of Messianic Islamic Fascism.
yes that is correct now
and as well
If Mr. Spencer works from a knowledgable ,erudite scholars position.
Again my apologies
gravenimage says
So sorry you were harmed on 9/11, Sophie.
Ryan says
I like the fact that Mr Spencer won’t be re-installing PayPal’s button. It shows that he has principles.
I would do the same.
Billy Chickens says
It was Pay Pal’s race policy – Islam being a race and all.
St. Michael Defend Us says
Now, what about George Clooney? First thing I see on the computer this morning is that he made a million dollar donation to SPLC.
Jeff says
Leftists control every part of the Internet based economy. At best they tolerate us. This won’t end well.
solange silverman says
Yelp is after me, because I messaged Reems restaurant and told them they should be ashamed to support terror. Mind you, it was a private message. And, so, the terrorists just might win again. smh