How about blacklisting people from monetary/financial services such as banks and credit card co's based on their political views? That goes even further.
At least in the UK, NatWest debanked Neil Farage's account for his political views. Even its CEO resigned over her lying.
"19 Republican states accuse JPMorgan of closing bank accounts and discriminating against customers due to their religious or political beliefs" [1][3]. Of course, this site is not favorable to conservatives and their views. Some left activists' accounts are closed as well [2].
Otherwise known as "banks lend money to people". Pantomime villains sell newspapers, 2008 and all that.
Much like technology that can be used for good and bad, I prefer to live in a world where services are available to all without discrimination – knowing that some people will do things I disagree with using those services – than a world where some random person's morals are used to restrict those services to certain groups.
I find it pretty weird to see people gleeful that a far right party cannot get campaign funding, but those same people baulk at any criticism of democracy. The bank probably doesn't care about the party politics, but it does care about it's reputation. Trying to call the banks out for who they lend money to is probably effective but – IMO – chilling.
For some reason all the banks or tech companies seem to have the same morals, and as soon as one acts so do the others. so you can't just go from one bank to another.
Once twitter banned trump, suddenly so did all the other tech giants. Once visa banned Wikileaks so did Mastercard. These giant corporations typically act in a block.
Banks can do whatever they want. It's pretty annoying for people doing legal-but-controversial things, whether you're selling adult content, weed, or WikiLeaks.
Well because these banks can only function from the money they borrow from the government, it’s insane they’re allowed to censor 1st amendment protected speech.
I think there is a fine line between a tech company and a financial services company.
Do you think it is okay for a bank to restrict people access to their own money or deny bank accounts because of opinions they hold or things they say?
It’s really easy to make claims like this when you don’t think the rules would ever apply to you. “Oh they are just targeting some fringe site on the internet. That’s perfectly within their rights”.
The precedent is what is dangerous. Imagine a world where if anyone says anything bad about billionaires, they are no longer allowed to use financial services.
Can you share an example of when financial services companies have deplatformed (is that the right term?) a political party in the US or UK?
I agree you probably shouldn't care about Iran. I'm just saying that's why presidents and senators care. Also, you should care about all the jobs FS creates both at the top and further down. Without financial services not only would your taxes go up, you wouldn't get half as good a mortgage and there would be a lot fewer jobs across the economy...
Edit:
The only examples of account closures I can find are either for right wing groups (HSBC closed a load of those) or 1 democrat in Florida whose account was closed after she was told they couldn't accept cannabis cash and she said she'd pay that in anyway...
Hmmm...can one imagine that New York Times op-ed if a bank said they would stop processing transactions for some other perfectly legal but perhaps morally objectionable activities like say abortion clinics?
Yes. And so a bank, seeking legal ways to decline service, would be safe. If they declare the radiostation that Farage, Galloway and Salmond all worked for to be a terrorist supporting body, they could decline service to all of them.
It's not hard to donate to bodies which fall foul of community standard. Or, appear on the podium with them. As Corbyn has found out. And, I doubt there's a basis to take action if a bank decides they don't want you as a customer accordingly.
I agree, it was honestly difficult to read this article and to reconcile the thought that I do business banking with Chase.
I've been thinking of a few non-profit startup ideas to combat this widespread corruption problem, but its nothing I'd want to discuss publicly in case I actually pull the trigger on it and desired to remain anonymous. I think you're thinking down the right highway of thought though.
https://spectator.us/topic/financial-blacklisting-sargon-akk...
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/02/27/financial-blacklis...
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