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stripe reportedly joins the tech platforms booting president trump from their services

AVATAR Jonathan Shieber
Jonathan Shieber
Writer, TechCrunch
January 11, 2021
stripe reportedly joins the tech platforms booting president trump from their services

Considering the current situation, it may be more straightforward to identify the technology platforms that President Donald Trump still has access to.

Stripe, a payment-processing firm, has recently terminated Donald Trump’s access to its services, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Consequently, the president’s campaign website and associated online fundraising operations will no longer be able to utilize the payment processor, effectively preventing the Trump campaign from accepting donations.

The Journal’s sources indicated that this decision stemmed from violations of the company’s policies prohibiting the promotion of violence.

This action occurs while the president has largely refrained from public statements through his official communication channels following last week’s events at the Capitol building.

While President Trump has been quiet, numerous technology companies have been actively distancing themselves from him by restricting access to their respective services.

The removal of the president from various platforms has resulted in his effective absence from all major social media networks, including Snap, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Spotify, and TikTok.

Companies that facilitate the majority of online financial transactions have also taken steps to block the president. Shopify and PayPal were the first to act against individuals supporting President Trump who were involved in the Capitol riot.

As previously discussed this week, PayPal has been suspending the accounts of certain groups of Trump supporters who were utilizing the money-transfer service to fund activities related to the riot on Capitol Hill.

The company has a history of addressing far-right extremism, having banned several far-right organizations following the Charlottesville protests and subsequent unrest in 2017. However, these bans had not previously been applied directly to the president, according to TechCrunch’s understanding.

On Thursday, Shopify announced the removal of online stores associated with both the Trump campaign and the Trump personal brand. This represents a shift in the company’s policy, as it previously maintained a stance of non-moderation but has since removed some controversial stores, including certain right-wing retailers in 2018.

Now, Stripe has added to these actions by cutting off a significant revenue stream for the president’s political endeavors.

As the Journal detailed, the Trump campaign initiated a fundraising drive to finance the numerous lawsuits filed by the president against various states. While these lawsuits were largely unsuccessful, the campaign still generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the Republican party.

 

#Stripe#Trump#ban#payment processor#tech companies#Capitol riot

Jonathan Shieber

Jonathan previously held the position of editor with TechCrunch.
Jonathan Shieber