Consumer Financial Protection Bureau considers investigating PayPal over fining people for legal speech
“I’ve never actually never heard of a payment system thinking that it could fine someone for legal expression that their users are making,” Chopra told CNBC.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director Rohit Chopra said he was considering investigating PayPal over a now-retracted update to the user agreement that said users would be fined $2,500 for spreading misinformation.
“I’ve never actually never heard of a payment system thinking that it could fine someone for legal expression that their users are making,” Chopra told CNBC.
“We have ordered most of the Big Tech firms for information about how they are making decisions about who they kick off their platforms,” Chopra added. “But we also need to look into whether they believe they can be fining users for illegal activity.”
PayPal said that the updated policy was sent in error.
“An AUP notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information,” a PayPal spokesperson said. “PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy. Our teams are working to correct our policy pages. We’re sorry for the confusion this has caused.”
Though, PayPal is still saying that it will fine users $2,500 for promoting “intolerance that is discriminatory.”
Despite retracting the policy, PayPal has been criticized, with Sen. Tim Scott saying that he would investigate the issue further.
The CFPB agency was originally proposed in 2007 by then Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, who is now a US senator.
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