Deplatforming Payment Acceptance

Deplatforming of Payment Acceptance – What it means to You!

The internet and social media are the new ‘town square.’ Traditionally, the town square is the center of commerce and culture. These days, that is the internet super highway. Both online and retail business owners rely on this infrastructure to conduct commerce day in and day out. With the recent uptick in the deplatforming of payment acceptance, business owners need alternate payment solutions to help protect themselves as best as possible. SecureGlobalPay is here to help you from getting shut down!

Whether we are talking about art, education, history, healthcare, politics, finance or culture, chances are the internet figures somewhere prominently. In the old days, people who were considered to have transgressed cultural rules were shunned in the town square. They were not welcomed into a  polite or politically correct society. They were also not welcome to consume goods and services or transact business alongside others.

Deplatforming Payment Acceptance in the Modern World

In the modern world, where the internet is the town square, this process of shunning is called ‘deplatforming.’ This can have serious ramifications for a person or group of users, as well as businesses. Most tend to employ a variety of alternate payment solutions and payment methods to transact business. Deplatforming can mean loss of access to various payment methods, including the ability to transact card payments of any kind. 

The epicenter of this activity is now within the United States. Social media for prominent individuals such as Alex Jones can be restricted and deplatformed by Silicon Valley for what is deemed hate speech. This has resulted in serious consequences for their ability to accept credit cards and to process mobile payments on a mobile device.

Deplatforming in 2021

Although we are now very accustomed to the internet, it is still a relatively new technology. As such, a great many rules and norms have yet to be worked out. Powerful technologies such as desktop browsers and video streaming platforms, coupled with various Apple and Android applications, connect us all to a virtual world. The internet literally encompasses the bandwidth of human activity.

Many of these rules and norms come from our pre-internet society. These rules and norms grew out of places of national origin. Most countries today value free speech. But if so, how can they enforce social norms and rules in the new ‘town square’?

Deplatforming Payment Acceptance in General

“Deplatforming” is the act of denying a venue to speakers of businesses that violate norms of social conduct. On the internet or through social networks, this takes the form of restricting access to a given actor’s site or services. This means denying them the ability to interact by suspending, banning or otherwise restricting their online visibility from other users. Perhaps the most dramatic example of deplatforming is Twitter’s January 2021 suspension of President Donald Trump’s Twitter account.

But deplatforming can also take less dramatic forms. One is the deplatforming of financial services.

Deplatforming Financial Services

The goal of deplatforming payment acceptance is to restrain the extent to which “bad actors” can influence others in the digital public square. One of the most effective ways to do this is to cancel or restrict their access to essential financial services.

Deplatforming access to financial services platforms is nothing new.

In October 2018, Robert Bowers left a hate-filled message on Gab before murdering 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Gab was immediately de-platformed by a number of online payment service providers, including Stripe and PayPal. PayPal merchant services have also stopped accepting payments from controversial commentator Stefan Molyneux. 

The service also disallows transactions from porn services such as PornHub on its platform. Similarly, the 1776 shop, which provides Proud Boys merchandise, has been deplatformed by PayPal, Square and Chase Payment Tech.

Credit Card Transactions

Processing credit card transactions if the lifeblood of any online business. But merchants that have been financially deplatformed face serious obstacles in providing potential customers with a payment option.

Any business seeking to conduct card transactions online must connect to the core of either the Visa or MasterCard networks. This can be done via a third party payment aggregator like Stripe, Square, PayPal or Payoneer. This can also be accomplished via various payment processors who supply direct MID’s and offer third gateway solutions like SecureGlobalPay. These companies furnish the financial services necessary to process transactions, regardless of payment type. These services enable connection to card networks as well as dealing with refunds or chargebacks.

Individuals, merchants or social media platforms that find themselves ‘canceled’ must find alternate ways of transacting business online. Gab, following the Bowers shooting, is now only able to accept payments via Bitcoin, check and e-check.

Deplatforming Payments, Politics and the Internet Culture

As the politics of our day continues to evolve, internet culture will keep pace. As individuals and organizations continue to influence our politics and culture, consequences like deplatforming will continue to be debated and implemented. 

It remains to be seen if alternate social media platforms like Gab & Parler are able to weather the storm. Also, will seasoned internet payment service providers still be willing to provide alternate payment solutions for these platforms? Contrary to the prevailing political and cultural landscape, the success or failure of those efforts, too, remains to be seen.

But the political and social convulsions of our time will continue, with or without the internet. As rules and expectations change, businesses and banks are expected to keep pace. As illustrated above, failure to do so can bring about ostracism and ruin. The savvy business executive is always keeping one eye on this developing situation while looking for alternate payment solutions and alternative methods with of keeping their businesses up and running.  

SecureGlobalPay has over 25 years of experience navigating through the payments landscape. Call one of our seasoned reps to discuss the various ways you can help safeguard your business and livelihood. Help mitigate the threat of your service provider deplatforming your payment acceptance ability by calling SecureGlobalPay today @ 800-419-1772.