PayPal to Fine Users $2,500 for Spreading Misinformation

A few months ago, I saw Roger Waters perform at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on his “This Is Not a Drill” tour.

Whenever I mention him to friends or family, they say, “Who’s that?”

So if you don’t know, Roger Waters was the bass player for Pink Floyd, and he wrote many of the lyrics and arrangements of the band’s hit songs, including “Money,” “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” and “Comfortably Numb.”

He wrote “Comfortably Numb” after he suffered a stomachache at the Spectrum in Philadelphia and a doctor gave him a shot of something that completely numbed him.

Pink Floyd’s tenth studio album, Animals, is an homage to Animal Farm and covers Orwellian themes of power, control, and corruption, and Rogers leaned into Orwell’s dystopian images in his live shows.

He’s become famous for the flying pig and “controversial” (i.e., inconvenient) political statements.

Before seeing him live, I was under the impression that he was just another outspoken political activist, playing stadium gigs to make obscene amounts of money for himself and talking a big game.

All I wanted to see was the hits!

Spoiler alert: To open the shows on this most recent tour, he says, “If you’re one of those ‘I love Pink Floyd but I can’t stand Rogers’ politics’ people, you might do well to fuck off to the bar right now.”

I guess that introduction was intended for people like me.

In his later years, he gained popularity on the left for calling George Bush a war criminal and denouncing Trump’s foreign policies.

But on this tour, he also labels Biden a war criminal and has previously called him a “fucking slimeball.”

He even penned an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin calling for an end to the Ukrainian war.

The political ruling class is furious because he not only doesn’t support the forever wars and nation building, but also has enormous reach. (The Dark Side of the Moon is the No. 4 best-selling album of all time.)

After seeing the show, I was pleasantly surprised and think this tour couldn't have come at a better time.

All the bitterness, divisiveness, and propaganda threaten to destroy the country and the world as we know it today.

The Big Tech Gestapo Comes A-Knockin’

Joe Rogan hosted Roger Waters on his podcast last Thursday, and one of the topics they covered was the insane power of Big Tech when it comes to the censoring of information.

In an earlier podcast episode, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was questioned about his role in Facebook’s suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, of which the company played a critical role by “limiting engagement.”

When Rogan asked Waters about this, Waters said, “Well, the fact is in my view, what’s really dangerous is this prick has any hand at all in deciding what any of us read about anything.” He continued, “He should not have his finger on the delete button on anything that goes through Facebook, in my view. And certainly anything to do with foreign policy. For instance, for anything to do with the Ukraine war. You can’t have Meta deciding what we should believe about that. It’s bad enough that the whole of the print section of mainstream media and all television has decided what we should believe about the Ukraine.”

He’s also gone on record calling Zuckerberg “one of the most powerful idiots in the world.”

And what happened over the weekend at PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) proves the point he's been making for years.

Just two days after Waters appeared on Rogan’s podcast, PayPal released an update to its legal agreement.

Of course, no one ever reads the fine print, but this time it’s a good thing someone did.

Because hidden in the new legal document was some disturbing language.

The tech giant said it would block users from its services if they participated in what PayPal called the “sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials” promoting misinformation.

What’s more is the tech giant said it would fine users $2,500 for each violation!

Once media outlets started reporting on the new language, PayPal issued a statement Monday, saying, “PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy.”

The company backpedaled hard on this mishap, as the stock slid 6% on the news.

But the rule is still partly in effect:

Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy constitutes a violation of the PayPal User Agreement and may subject you to damages, including liquidated damages of $2,500.00 U.S. dollars per violation, which may be debited directly from your PayPal account(s) as outlined in the User Agreement (see "Restricted Activities and Holds" section of the PayPal User Agreement).

What happens if you don’t have $2,500 in your account?

Will they come knocking on your door along with armed IRS agents?

This proves that Big Tech — whether it’s PayPal, Meta, Twitter, or Google — only cares about one thing: money.

And they’re willing to violate your rights to get their grubby hands on it.

I guess Roger Waters was right when he wrote that song all those years ago.

The Future of Big Tech

Fortunately, there’s a silver lining here.

Now that Elon Musk’s Twitter deal may finally go through, the world’s “town square” is going to look much different.

No more censorship or complying with unconstitutional spying programs.

An online space that’s of the people, by the people, for the people.

OK, maybe it’s not going to change that much, but at least it takes the power away from one group of corrupt people.

The stock market may even reward the deal.

This week, InvestorPlace published a list of stocks set to benefit from the takeover deal, including Black Rifle Coffee Company (NYSE: BRCC) and Rumble (NASDAQ: RUM).

You can always count on Musk to throw a wrench into things.

He did so last week when he unveiled his Optimus robots.

That's why I want to turn your attention to my colleague Jason Williams' presentation about the future of the robotics industry.

He's found a way to get paid every time a robot rolls off the assembly line.

Imagine getting paid EVERY SINGLE TIME a robot gets made or makes a delivery, disinfects a hospital room, harvests your produce, and more…

It's now possible thanks to a loophole that Jason calls “Robot Royalties.”

Find out how you could start collecting these royalties for yourself today.

Stay frosty,

Alexander Boulden
Editor, Wealth Daily

Check us out on YouTube!

After Alexander’s passion for economics and investing drew him to one of the largest financial publishers in the world, where he rubbed elbows with former Chicago Board Options Exchange floor traders, Wall Street hedge fund managers, and International Monetary Fund analysts, he decided to take up the pen and guide others through this new age of investing.

Alexander is the investment director of Insider Stakeout — a weekly investment advisory service dedicated to tracking the smartest money on the planet so that his readers can achieve life-altering, market-beating returns. He also serves at the managing editor for R.I.C.H. Report, a comprehensive service that uses the highest-quality investment research and strategies that guides its members in growing their wealth on top of preserving it.

Check out his editor’s page here.

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