November 14th 2018 https://archive.ph/3I8HJ
A few hours ago BitChute received a notice that our PayPal account has been permanently limited, with immediate effect, and that we will no longer be able to accept or send payments.
The notice included the following information: “The User Agreement for PayPal Service states that PayPal, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to limit an account for any violation of the User Agreement, including the Acceptable Use Policy.” This decision seems to be final although we will try to appeal.
PayPal’s acceptable use policy can be found here: https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/acceptableuse-full?locale.x=en_GB
BitChute has had a Paypal account since 2016, we have used it to settle payments and to receive subscription payments from supporters along with other discretionary payments. It’s our belief that it is our stand against the current trend in censorship that has resulted in this action.
BitChute is politically neutral and we have a diverse community in interests and backgrounds. We require that users only upload legal content that complies with our terms and community guidelines. We carry out moderation to remove all content that breaches our terms and community guidelines, including but not limited to videos from terrorists, child abuse or pirated video. For more details please see our terms and community guidelines:
https://support.bitchute.com/policy/guidelines/
https://support.bitchute.com/policy/terms/
BitChute is pro-free expression which is a universal human right. Furthermore, censorship and deplatforming are poor ways to tackle societal problems as they merely create echo chambers that can lead to bigger problems in the long run. It’s important to platform all idea’s as this exposes them to immediate opposition and allows for a public deconstruction of any flaws they may contain. If you are against bigotry or racism or hateful ideologies, you should be pro-free expression.
What’s Next?
We are working to get a replacement credit card payments processor and will keep all our supporters updated on our progress. In the meantime if you are a supporter, your support level will be held in place on the site with all benefits intact, you needn’t make any changes. The reward tiers that include mugs and t-shirts will be made available once the payments have resumed.
If you are able to support us in some other ways in the meantime I have provided a link to our help us grow page.
https://www.bitchute.com/help-us-grow/. Any support you can provide will be most appreciated.
Ray Vahey
BitChute Founder and CEO