PayPal is the latest tech company to ban conspiracy theory site Infowars over its controversial content.
"We undertook an extensive review of the Infowars sites, and found instances that promoted hate or discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions, which run counter to our core value of inclusion," PayPal told PCMag in a Friday email.
InfoWars, which is run by right-wing web show host Alex Jones, said PayPal gave it 10 days to find an alternate payment provider before terminating the service.
PayPal didn't cite the specific instances of hate speech, but Infowars claims the content involved "criticism of Islam and opposition to transgenderism being to taught children in schools." PayPal's user agreement explicity prohibits "threatening or harassing" acts, in addition to providing false or misleading information.
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The service termination may inconvenience InfoWars financially. To earn revenue, the site sells nutritional supplements and other products Jones routinely promotes to his listeners. Going forward, customers will have to pay with debit or credit cards supported by Visa, Discover, American Express, or Mastercard.
PayPal declined to comment on why it decided to ban Infowars now, given the site's long-standing reputation for posting controversial content. But it occurs two weeks after Twitter also banned the conspiracy theory site and Jones over what it deemed were harassing tweets. In August, Apple, Facebook, and YouTube also expelled Jones and Infowars from their platforms over hate speech.
The successive bans threaten to limit Infowars' reach across the internet. In response, Jones has been claiming that tech companies are out to censor right-wing voices on the web. It's an allegation President Trump has also leveled at Silicon Valley
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"They better be careful, because you can't do that to people," Trump said last month. "We have literally thousands and thousands of complaints coming in."
The major internet companies including Google, Twitter and Facebook deny that their products discriminate against conservative viewpoints. Nevertheless, the US Justice Department is seeking to convene a meeting next week with state attorneys general to discuss "growing concern" that the tech companies are hurting competition and stifling ideas. However, Reuters reports the meeting may be delayed to November.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
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