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PayPal Reinstates Fund For WikiLeaker Manning
itwbennett writes "PayPal has lifted a temporary restriction placed on the account of Courage to Resist, a group raising funds to support the legal defense of US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was arrested for allegedly downloading classified information and providing it to WikiLeaks. As you may recall, PayPal was embroiled in controversy late last year when it shuttered an account for WikiLeaks amid the controversy over the expose of US State Department documents. PayPal communications director Anuj Nayar said in a blog posting that the decision 'had nothing to do with WikiLeaks.'"
Crowdtality!
[quote]PayPal communications director Anuj Nayar said in a blog posting that the decision 'had nothing to do with WikiLeaks.[/quote]
If anybody believes that, I have another bridge to sell them.
This is the sig that says NI (again)
Where is this "The Courage to Resist PayPal" account Anuj Nayar talks about?
Sorry, but Paypal has done a lot of questionable things, and only retracts them if they get enough bad press.
Is his story true? I don't know, it could be, but then again...
Paypal should really do a little more investigation when these issues crop up, and contact the account holders to try and fix or at least clarify any issues before locking an account. It wouldn't take much more work in the short run, but it would save a lot of work in the long run, not to mention legal and public relations bills.
"PayPal communications director Anuj Nayar said in a blog posting that the decision 'had nothing to do with WikiLeaks.'"
Bullshit.
Their explanation makes sense. Not everything has to be a conspiracy.
Is that the new code for "let me be totally inscrutable"?
Obama starts off his weasel worded sentences in the same way.
And it's both sides of the aisle. David Cameron (UK PM) does the same thing.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
If you believe what PayPal said, then I have a real deal for you on a slightly used bridge...
Sometimes, real fast is almost as good as real-time.
Obviously this is just part of the government conspiracy to out wikileaks supporters^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H terrorists! At the behest of the U.S. government, Paypal allowed the account to be opened, only to seize the funds shortly thereafter. This caused all of the terrorists to come out in support of Manning and wikileaks temporarily so all of their IP addresses could be gathered. Now that the NSA has handed over the relevant data to high lord of the internet police Joe Biden, PayPal can release the account once again, to lure in more unsuspecting terrorist supporters!
If you're smart like me, you'll only post in support of wikileaks anonymously on niche sites that nobody visits like slashdot!
*dons tinfoil hat*
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
His credibility is outweighed by the irony of the blog's phrasing.
It referred to the "Courage to Resist PayPal" account!
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
"To be clear: PayPal cannot take such action without the authorization of an account holder, nor does it ever take such unauthorized actions."
What a line of bullshit, they have stolen from me twice to the tune of $5300.
4 years and I'm still fighting these fuckers over this.
i even won in small claims court due to them not showing up and haven't received a penny, and i likely never will.
Regardless of the amount of money PFC Manning raises through PayPal, he is still going to be tried under the Uniform Code of Military Justice in front of military personnel. It is not going to be a jury that could be swayed by the trickery of defense lawyers. Unless he has a solid case that disproves his actions, relying on reasonable doubt alone likely will not clear him.
I believe the Paypal spokesperson when she says that the decision to freeze the accounts had nothing to do with the Wikileaks controversy, and it's obvious that the reversal is mostly due to bad publicity or maybe they just had one of the two people in the organization with common sense adjust the policy in this specific case. The arbitrary and capricious manner in which Paypal makes decisions really isn't suited to a company that is handling people's money. In this case, they probably really didn't care about the controversy, they just wanted to have a bank account on file for the customer so they could drain it if there ever was some sort of dispute.
It's a reasonably useful service and my favorable experiences, both as a sender of money and receiver of money outweigh the bad ones. But they just don't seem to have matured to the point where they can be taken seriously as an institution. "The World's Most-Loved Way to Pay and Be Paid" is the stupidest motto ever. I'm sorry, "love" isn't a factor I consider when transferring money in a commercial transaction. "Trust" would describe what I'm looking for, "Secure" would also be an appropriate adjective, even "Easiest" might work. And if I don't want to link a bank account because I'm paranoid about what they'd do with it, that's my prerogative. There's a recent story on the Consumerist blog (consumerist.com) about Paypal "finding" in a user's favor, but debiting more and more money from their account. That's why it might be a bad idea to trust Paypal with your banking information. I would just expect an agency that transfers money and handles sensitive financial information to be a little less incompetent in their fiduciary duties.
Paypal probably* did this because they received a National Security Letter.
Now, the action they took was trivial to work around (spend 20 minutes opening an extra bank account that is cleared daily), so I don't see the giant fuss in the cat-and-mouse game that is the modern police state.
But CTR didn't get that and made a big stink about it. OK, fine.
Now, because of the PR disaster, PayPal is likely* defying a secret order from the government. This changes some things about how people will think about PayPal.
* NSL's are secret and nobody is allowed to talk about them, so the best we can do is go on prior information and make informed guesses. Transparency fail, obviously.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
We had a PayPal account some years ago. At that time the easiest way to get free software was to order using PayPal and then dispute the payment. PayPal would immediately take the money out of our bank account until the dispute was resolved. It always went in favor of the buyer so we lost thousands of dollars. It got so bad that PayPal zeroed our bank account. They then closed our account permanently. Worse, I had family members unrelated to our business who's acconts were also closed because they were relatives. So yes - PayPal can and does take money out of your linked account without asking unless they've changed their policy.
Why did you even bother to make this post?!? What a buncha' party line drivel!
Try to bring something to the conversation, not just spout platitudes.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
Time to burn some karma!!!
Is there a corresponding site for those of us who wish to donate to a fund that will buy the bullets that the firing squad will use when they take the traitorous little bastard out and shoot him? And, if so, does the site accept PayPal?
Cheers,
Dave
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
They hate America! Or, err, hate those who hate America! Oh, I'm so confused. Someone please tell me how I should feel.
/. memo notifying me to add PayPal to the list of companies I'm supposed to hate.
I think I missed the
All joking aside, looks like PayPal had a legitimate reason to suspend the account. The organization was forced to step through a few other hoops to get around thee reasons and are good to go. How was this ever a story in the first place?
This is like when they suspended the Mojang (Minecraft) account and everyone got all up in arms. But look at it from PayPal's view, an account with very little history goes from zero to and insane amount of money in a short amount of time. It tripped their BS alarm and they locked it down to save them money since they are the ones who get fucked in cases of fraud. It got sorted out and it's all good now.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
This was CTR's fault. Paypal charges fees. These fees require a source. That source is a bank account. CTR would not associate a bank account with their paypal account. Their account was frozen until the bank account association happened.
This whole story was simply used as a tool used by CTR to get free press.
How about an account to donate for the noose!
Conservative, mod down for violating
Cancelled the account and let them know why in both the feedback form and the survey they sent out.
So basically, this is my doing. You're welcome, America.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .