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In the Media

Articles That Mention the Free Speech Union

Michael Gove among senior Tories urging ministers to hold PayPal to account after the US online payment giant abruptly cancelled the accounts of free speech campaigners

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Leading figures in the Conservative Party including Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove and Sir Graham Brady have demanded ministers hold PayPal to account after it abruptly cancelled a group which campaigns for freedom of speech. Toby Young, who set up the Free Speech Union and the Daily Sceptic news blog said three of his PayPal accounts were closed by the American online payments giant without explanation last week for an alleged violation of its policies.

Isolde Walters, MailOnline, 25th September 2022.

PayPal urged to release confiscated funds from frozen British accounts

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PayPal has been urged to release confiscated funds from British organisations as over 30 Tory MPs and peers accuse the online transfer giant of launching an “orchestrated” and “politically motivated” attack on groups that champion free speech. The US payments company has come under fire after shutting down the accounts of the Free Speech Union, its founder Toby Young, and his opinion and news website the Daily Sceptic, with no clear explanation last week.

Camilla Turner, The Telegraph, 24th September 2022.

PayPal accused of “financial bullying” in free speech row

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Tech giant PayPal has been accused of “policing opinions by financial bullying” and has put itself in the “new frontline in the war against free speech”, critics say. It now faces a political battle with politicians lining up to call for action against the US company. PayPal shut a number of accounts last week including those of journalist Toby Young, the founder of the Free Speech Union.

Lucy Johnston, Daily Express, 24th September 2022.

Jack Dee and Matt Le Tissier close their Paypal accounts after online payments giant cancels Free Speech Union and anti-school lockdown group UsForThem

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Comedian Jack Dee has closed his PayPal account after it cancelled the accounts of the Free Speech Union and a parents group which fought to keep schools open during lockdown. The stand-up comedian, 60, accused the Californian company of bullying customers after it also shut the account of UsForThem – which campaigned to keep schools open during Covid. He took to Twitter to announce: “I’m in the process of cancelling my PayPal account. Big Tech companies that feel they can bully people for questioning mainstream groupthink don’t deserve anyone’s business.” And he was joined by former professional footballer Matt Le Tissier who wrote: “That’s my PayPal account closed along with my wife’s. Good riddance to tin pot dictators.”

Isabella Nikolic, MailOnline, 23rd September 2022.

If corporations are allowed to decide which opinions are permissible, then free speech is dead

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Is the West in the process of introducing a Chinese-style social credit system? I’ve read with horror the stories of state-controlled banks in China cutting off people’s access to their accounts if they refuse to toe the Communist Party line, but I never thought it could happen here. Admittedly, it did happen in Canada earlier this year, with some banks freezing the accounts of truckers protesting against the vaccine mandates at the behest of Justin Trudeau. But that was an exceptional case, surely?

Toby Young, The Telegraph, 22nd September 2022.

PayPal shuts down accounts of Free Speech Union

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Speaking to Mark Dolan exclusively on GB News, Toby Young said, “I assumed that when I was cancelled in 2019, I couldn’t get cancelled again. I thought I was bullet proof… it terms out I was naive.” He went on “PayPal have form…but there’s no right of appeal, no right to parole. This is the new battlefront for free speech”.

GB News, 21st September 2022.

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