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from the It's-not-easy-being-white-supremacists dept.
Over at the CCN, Gab is having trouble even getting its bitcoin on.
The declaration by free speech social network Gab that the firm was still allowed on Square’s bitcoin-friendly Cash App after being banned on other platforms may have been premature.
This emerged after the social media platform that is occasionally referred to as “alt-right Twitter,” over its popularity with extremist right-wingers, disclosed that the personal Square Cash account of the firm’s founder and CEO, Andrew Torba, had been deactivated.
Things like this are just bad for business.
Earlier this month as CCN reported, Gab had posted a tweet that gave the impression that Square’s Cash App — which allows users to buy and sell bitcoin — had reactivated Gab’s access. According to Breaker magazine, Square might have unknowingly reactivated an account belonging to Gab but will continue to “pro-actively delete any new accounts that it learned were connected with Gab.”
[...] Besides Square, other platforms that have banned Gab in the recent past include cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, online payment processing firm Stripe, bitcoin payment service provider BitPay and online payments system PayPal.
Currently, bitcoin, as well as money orders and checks sent to its post office address, are the only ways for Gab to process payments for its premium service, GabPro. On January 8, Gab announced that it had integrated with open-source crypto payment processor BTCPay Server.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @07:45AM (27 children)
When a gay couple wants to buy a cake, how would the world react to them being banned from all forms of digital payment?
There are certain types of business where you should have no control over who can use your service.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @07:58AM (4 children)
Yeah but, what if it was a gay nazis for jesus with a picture of mohamed cake?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @04:56PM (2 children)
What flavor cake, and does it have rainbow frosting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:30PM (1 child)
Vanilla and yes [howtocakeit.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:32PM
Ah, crap, ignore that comment.
(Score: 0, Troll) by jbruchon on Saturday January 12 2019, @09:16PM
Only on Tuesdays.
I'm just here to listen to the latest song about butts.
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday January 12 2019, @08:37AM (3 children)
Masterpiece Cakeshop, that one went to SC. And SC said, he doesn't have to bake that cake. And Justice Kennedy said, maybe in another case where things are a little different, it can go the other way. But, I replaced Justice Kennedy. And I'm getting ready to replace Justice Ginsberg. MAGA!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @08:46AM (1 child)
I'm not talking about the bakery. People talk about going to a cashless society, but then want to be able to control who is allowed to spend money based on their beliefs.
There is no law that requires you to like your customers.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:54AM
You said cake. But you were talking about the money. And I knew you were talking about the money. And, I think everybody knew that. I don't speak for everybody. Unfortunately. But, I think they knew. They knew, I'm almost certain.
The money. Does anyone remember WikiLeaks? They put out those very interesting Cables. From Crooked H's State Department. And, from her predecessors. Going back to the '70s (fabulous times -- Disco). And the Banks hated it. The Credit Cards hated it. They said, "oh, you can't say that, what you're saying has to be illegal!" MasterCard, Pay Pal and some others. They made it very hard to send money to WikiLeaks, right? And this went on for years. Very rough time for WikiLeaks.
And, what about our 2nd. Amendment? You have your Citi Card, you want to buy a gun, great. Unless you're under 21. Because Citi won't pay for that one. And, they have some other rules too. Where, they'll block the payment. They're doing Gun Control through the card. They call it Corporate Responsibility. And I wish our big movie & video game Studios had it. Because that's where the biggest, biggest problem is!! youtu.be/0C_IBSuXIoo [youtu.be]
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 13 2019, @01:55AM
The worst thing I ever did, was to appoint Ginsberg to the Supreme Court. - Abraham Lincoln
I'm going to buy my defensive radar from Temu, just like Venezuela!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @09:02AM (2 children)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Saturday January 12 2019, @11:54AM
Well, you don't really need to use Square's Cash App to transmit bitcoins. And of course as soon as you try to exchange bitcoins for state-issued money, the state gets involved.
As long as as you stay in bitcoin, all you need is the ability of connecting to the bitcoin network. Of course in principle that part could also be regulated by the state (through specific blocking at the ISP level).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @06:08PM
it tells shit all about that, you lazy minded jackass. it says that these dumb fuckers should have used square.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:07AM (8 children)
Agreed. For anyone who doesn't care because they don;t like the alt-right (I must say, I don't like them), keep in mind that in the crazy world today there's no telling what sort of speech may fall into disfavor tomorrow.
It's not much of a stretch to imagine financial institutions deciding they don't like people talking about a need to regulate financial institutions, for example.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:35AM (4 children)
We already know: Whistleblowers, activists, and journalists who challenge the status quo. MasterCard and other companies banned people from giving money to Wikileaks, for example. Allowing financial institutions to do whatever they please is a recipe for disaster, and the people who are reveling in the fact that people they don't like are being destroyed at the moment are profoundly short-sighted.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @03:25PM (3 children)
That's why in EU, you can just send money transfer with SEPA transfer
https://shop.wikileaks.org/donate#db7 [wikileaks.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area [wikipedia.org]
Actually I've rather rarely used my CC here in Germany. I pay for rent, taxes, etc., all with SEPA transfer. And it's even free.
In US or Canada I could send transfers too, but only from business accounts, which is kind of annoying. And even then, people still use the antiquated cheques.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:23PM (2 children)
There are alternatives until there aren't, because people stand by and do nothing as financial institutions take control over everything and work hand-in-hand with oppressive governments.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 13 2019, @01:58AM
You do realize that very thing has been happening for as long as there have been financial institutions? The Bank of England is infamous for having financed Napoleon, as well as those fighting against Napoleon.
I'm going to buy my defensive radar from Temu, just like Venezuela!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @01:26PM
Only if you have useless government. In EU banks didn't like the legislation to force SEPA either. Then they really didn't like the processing timelines for SEPA that keeps going down. Now I can send you a transfer that will get there in a few seconds, but banks don't like that either. So they charge fees for instant transfers.
There was large opposition to free EU-wide roaming from the telecoms too. But now it's reality and somehow telcoms still here? Imagine that!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @02:05PM
There is. They are going to ban any critic of Islam. [8ch.net] The people behind the mass bannings from social media have all been found to be on the payroll of Saudi Arabia or Qatar, or a step removed from someone who is. They control NATO's national security agencies so nobody is going to do anything about it. Trump is still trying to make a deal with them while they're lining him up for impeachment and execution.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @05:03PM (1 child)
Aren't there "religious freedom laws" that allow de facto discrimination based on a customer's failure to meet the proprietor's litmus test of religiosity (e.g., the cake bakery)? If the financial institutions share a belief that "hate groups are bad" can't they use that litmus test to decide who they want to do business with (just like the cake bakery)?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 13 2019, @02:08AM
Fail for two reasons.
First, bankers religion is money. Their only reason for existing, is to make ever more money. It makes no financial sense to turn away worshippers of money.
Second, that bit about "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private". The law of the land doesn't say "This not is legal tender for all debts, unless we don't like you." Such a law would justify all manner of discrimination, against any group, any time, or any place.
When all is said and done, when a banking institution refuses to do buisness with any group, they are discriminating. Said institution is no better than either Antifa, or any white supremacist group. The only criteria that a financial institution should use in doing business, is whether that business is profitable, and whether the institution is risking any of their own money.
I'm going to buy my defensive radar from Temu, just like Venezuela!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @02:10PM (4 children)
Being gay is not a choice. Being a disgusting nazi racist mysoginist piece of shit is.
Civilized societies do not discriminate against things people have no control over, like gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, etc.
Civilized societies DO however discriminate against things civilization have been trying for centuries to eradicate, like slavery, tyranny, mysoginy, war, barbarism, savagery, hatred and bloodshed. That's the whole fucking point of civilization.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @03:37PM (1 child)
Fixed that for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @04:03PM
I think this suggests my next thing to study after the November Revolution and the Sparticist Uprising, perhaps where I should have started in the first place, and so it is time to turn my thoughts closer to home to continue to understand the nature of inequality, struggle, and revolution.
For example, the Stalinist Communist Party USA [wikipedia.org] (CPUSA) was involved in defending the Scottsboro Boys [wikipedia.org] and in the early civil rights movement. The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [consortiumnews.com] is looking to be a flashpoint for World War 3, based on my extrapolations and recent wswswswswsws reporting of USA military activity, but the ICFI doesn't seem to be much involved in DR Congo. (ICFI focus now is on GM workers and Tamils in India and Sri Lanka, with cheerleading for the teachers' strikes in the USA and the Gilet Jaunes in France.)
There is much to be learned here to understand how... Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe), which is a novel I recommend everybody read (probably the only worthwhile thing I was exposed to in my government education). Our right-wing commentators and readers might find sympathy for the main character, Okonkwo, as invaders arrive in his homeland and proceed to tear his culture apart.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Tokolosh on Saturday January 12 2019, @03:48PM
And how do civilized societies progress? By free speech.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @05:08PM
I don't recall marking the "disgusting" box on my Social Outcast form.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @07:55PM
The flaw in your comparison is that what's happening to Gab is the world reacting.