The Free Speech Union is delighted that the Labour Government has decided to make good on the last government’s plan, agreed with the Free Speech Union, to do something about ‘de-banking’. This is a sinister form of cancel culture that has no place in a modern democracy – and we deserve some of the credit for stamping it out.
As some of you will know, the Free Speech Union was de-banked by PayPal in 2022. We were given no notice and no proper explanation, just told our account was being closed, effective immediately. That posed a threat to our survival because about a third of our members were using PayPal to process their payments, but our appeals to the California-based company fell on deaf ears. Consequently, we kicked up an almighty fuss in the public square and, after senior politicians started asking questions, PayPal restored our account.
But we weren’t going to let the matter rest there. We saw this for what it was – the emergence of a Chinese-style social credit system in the UK, whereby if your political beliefs don’t align with the progressive ‘values’ of banks and payment processors you can lose access to their services. In an increasingly cashless society, that was a new and particularly effective type of censorship. It needed to be nipped in the bud.
We started talking to Andrew Griffith MP, then the Economic Secretary, to see what could be done about it. He invited us to submit evidence to the Treasury about how widespread the de-banking phenomenon is. We duly did that, citing numerous cases – many of them members of the FSU – and the result is that the last government agreed to amend the Payment Services Regulations up to make it more difficult for banks and payment services providers to de-bank their customers for purely political reasons. Unfortunately, Rishi Sunak called a General Election before these amendments could be made, but in April of this year the new Government announced it would be making them.
These changes to the financial regulations will undoubtedly help, but they won’t be enough. Consequently, if you’ve been de-banked, the first thing you should do is submit a Subject Access Request (SAR), demanding to see whatever information the company in question is holding on you. We’ve published a set of FAQs telling people what to do if they’ve been de-banked, including how to submit an SAR. If it shows you’ve been discriminated against, you can then complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service and, if necessary, take the bank or payment processor to court.
The Free Speech Union has already helped several of its members navigate this process and we’ll be happy to help you too if you sign-up.
Even if you think you’ll never need our services, we’d urge you to join the fight and support our efforts to defend free speech. We have won a significant victory over the payment services providers, but fighting for free speech is like a game of Whac-A-Mole – every time you’ve defeated one enemy, another one pops up.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
