They really put the L in PayPal this time.
A PDF of an update to PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy was leaked online, and the press almost immediately pointed out a new section added in the update which caused many to raise some eyebrows.
Here's the section in full, as noted in "Prohibited Uses":
You may not use the PayPal service for activities that ... involve the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials that, in PayPal’s sole discretion, (a) are harmful, obscene, harassing, or objectionable, (b) depict or appear to depict nudity, sexual or other intimate activities, (c) depict or promote illegal drug use, (d) depict or promote violence, criminal activity, cruelty, or self-harm (e) depict, promote, or incite hatred or discrimination of protected groups or of individuals or groups based on protected characteristics (e.g. race, religion, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation,
etc.) (f) present a risk to user safety or wellbeing, (g) are fraudulent, promote misinformation, or are unlawful, (h) infringe the privacy, intellectual property rights, or other proprietary rights of any party, or (i) are otherwise unfit for publication.
The idea of "promoting misinformation" is incredibly vague, and is very likely going to be used by authoritarian governments to discourage wrongthink. Following the publication of this and the subsequent "Delete PayPal" trend on social media, PayPal almost immediately backpedaled and claimed it was "sent out in error". Not like it would make any difference, given they fully intended to hinder free speech with this with their moral policing.
The original link to the PDF stopped working (it now returns a blank page) seemingly around the time they backpedaled, but thanks to the Internet Archive you can and should access an archive of the PDF here - http://web.archive.org/web/2022100400…full-110322.pdf