Disaster Activists Are Trying To Force Mastercard To Cut Off Payments To The Far Right - The payment giant’s shareholders will vote on a proposal to set up a “human rights committee” at the company to monitor money flowing to hate groups.

http://archive.li/77Yh1
https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/mastercard-activists-cut-off-donations-far-right

Activists have successfully forced Mastercard to hold a vote by shareholders on a proposal which, if passed, could see the company monitoring payments to global far-right political leaders and white supremacist groups.

The proposal aims to see Mastercard establish an internal “human rights committee” that would stop designated white supremacist groups and anti-Islam activists, such as Tommy Robinson, from getting access to money sent from donors using the company’s card payment services.

It’s been conceived by US-based political activists SumOfUs, who want to escalate the battle against white supremacists and far-right groups from tech platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Patreon, and PayPal to one of the biggest companies in world finance, in an attempt to choke off donations.



Robinson and several other leading figures in the global far right have been forced in recent months to solicit donations directly on their websites via Mastercard, Visa, and American Express after PayPal banned payments to them. Facebook also disabled the donation function on Robinson’s fan page before deleting it completely.

“Spreading hate involves spending money,” Eoin Dubsky, from SumOfUs, told BuzzFeed News. “Whether it’s paying for online advertising or organising violent rallies, white supremacist groups need financial services from companies like Mastercard.”

Over several months, SumOfUs has been locked in a battle with Mastercard executives behind the scenes in order to get the new committee proposal put to the shareholders ahead of the company’s June annual general meeting.

It would see the formation of a “human rights committee” at the board level, which would monitor financial transactions with designated hate groups.

Documents seen by BuzzFeed News reveal that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has given the green light for shareholders to get the chance to vote on the formation of the committee, despite staunch opposition from the Mastercard board and executives.

In the material to be sent to shareholders, the activists refer to a website called Blood Money, which tracks online payments to white supremacist groups from the likes of Mastercard, American Express, and Stripe. The website currently claims that Mastercard services are being used by groups like Counter-Currents Publishing, Covenant People’s Ministry, the United West, Sultan Knish, and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation.

SumOfUs has also pointed to the activity of Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. The former English Defence League founder is running as an independent in May’s European election.

In November 2018, PayPal banned donations to the anti-Islam activist, with the online payment company saying that its services wouldn’t “be used to promote hate, violence, or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory”.

More recently, Robinson has been calling on his global network of supporters to donate to his election campaign through his website, which allows payments from Mastercard.

“Having a Mastercard logo on their website also gives these groups a veneer of legitimacy, and allows those who want to donate to do so quickly and quietly,” Dubsky told BuzzFeed News.

“Mastercard also benefits, pocketing a transaction fee for each purchase or donation.”

Mastercard declined requests for comment, pointing instead to the board’s position laid out in the information sent to shareholders ahead of the general meeting.

“Mastercard is committed to treating all people fairly and with dignity, and our interest in human rights extends to all areas in which our business is involved and where we have particular expertise,” it reads. “The Board does not believe that establishing a separate human rights committee is necessary to properly exercise its oversight of this important area.”

It’s unclear whether the proposal stands a chance of succeeding at June’s meeting. But the move to confront such a big, mainstream company like Mastercard over issues like the funding of white supremacy and the far right comes after action from smaller, online financial platforms like PayPal and Patreon in the area.

PayPal has banned payments to Robinson, US far-right group Proud Boys, and Canadian anti-Islam activist Laura Loomer. It also acted against several US anti-fascist groups because the company had no tolerance for groups that promoted “hate” and “violence”.

Last year, Patreon banned YouTuber Sargon of Akkad over a 2015 video that featured the Gamergate leader repeatedly saying the n-word in a Google Hangout with the alt-right. According to the New York Times, Sargon of Akkad, whose real name is Carl Benjamin, had 3,000 subscribers and was being paid $12,000 a month on Patreon when he was removed from the site.

In a recent YouTube video, Benjamin and Robinson talked about being de-platformed by social media companies. But Robinson also suggested that he has long-term fears beyond the big tech companies.

“I am being completely un-personed,” Robinson said. “What’s next—my mobile-phone contract?”

 

[Clones of Alex Jones]

Political affiliation is going to become the next legally-protected class at this rate, up there with race, religion and sex. Not that that's a bad thing, but the fact it came to this, that in America, you had to make it a law "you can't unperson someone for thinking differently" is troubling.

creed

• n.
  A formal statement of religious belief; a confession of faith.
• n.
  A system of belief, principles, or opinions: laws banning discrimination on the basis of race or creed; an architectural creed that demanded simple lines.

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

How fucking big is your fedora?

Not big enough to contain raymond's massive brain.

 

[QI 541]

Again comes your wholly unjustified assumption that the "American right" is naturally stupid and the "American left" naturally smart.

You're wrong, my assumption is that they're both naturally stupid, but one of them is slightly more stupid than the other at any given time.

 

[Ledian]

The point of political alignment coming into play is stupid. This is not a partisan item to care about; both sides should give 110% a shit about this sort of thing because it's something that can be wholly abused and despite what's said, the most the right has down is use outside community influence and watchdog groups to boycott things.

By scale, this is something far more heinous than calling Dungeon's and Dragons satanic because while the right might have tried to influence culture, they never whole-heartedly tried to silence and eliminate their competition so fiercely like this. Unless you can give me an example, and I mean with a fucking link and everything, I'm not going to believe any "but the right did it because they're stupid" bullshit.
If the right is stupid, yet somehow just as capable of doing something like this, then they must have done so in the past.

 

[queue-anon]

Anyone else see that LGBT activists tried to drag Chick-Fil-A for giving money to the Salvation Army? Liberals are undoubtedly going to use this to defund charities that aren’t hate groups but also don’t support their pet causes.

I can’t get over these idiots’ priorities. Big money backs so many things that are objectively worse for humanity than an anti-Islam group. Weapons manufacturers alone are responsible for more mayhem against Muslims than anything Tommy Robinson could come up with.

 

[Dysnomia]

Mastercard is in the business of making money, not protecting feefees.

Just create your own banking and credit system.

I'd love to see how fast a woke credit card company goes broke.

 

[QI 541]

The point of political alignment coming into play is stupid. This is not a partisan item to care about; both sides should give 110% a shit about this sort of thing because it's something that can be wholly abused and despite what's said, the most the right has down is use outside community influence and watchdog groups to boycott things.

By scale, this is something far more heinous than calling Dungeon's and Dragons satanic because while the right might have tried to influence culture, they never whole-heartedly tried to silence and eliminate their competition so fiercely like this. Unless you can give me an example, and I mean with a fucking link and everything, I'm not going to believe any "but the right did it because they're stupid" bullshit.
If the right is stupid, yet somehow just as capable of doing something like this, then they must have done so in the past.

It's called mccarthyism.

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

You're wrong, my assumption is that they're both naturally stupid, but one of them is slightly more stupid than the other at any given time.

Oh okay.

Let me amend that for you.

Again comes your wholly unjustified assumption that the "American right" is naturally stupid and the "American left" naturally slightly smarter than the "American right".

 

[Ledian]

It's called mccarthyism.

McCarthy accused people but never silenced them; he was only a senator after all and had no power to do so. People he accused naturally defended themselves.
And if you bring up HUAC, they confronted and accused people as well but again, they never silenced them. That's the key thing here.

 

[дядя Боря]

Mastercard is in the business of making money, not protecting feefees.

I'd love to see how fast a woke credit card company goes broke.

not fast enough, try creating your own credit card to find out just how high the barrier to entry is in that market. Same deal with "woke" social media and fucktube, when you are dominating the market, there is a long way down.

 

[queue-anon]

McCarthy accused people but never silenced them; he was only a senator after all and had no power to do so. People he accused naturally defended themselves.
And if you bring up HUAC, they confronted and accused people as well but again, they never silenced them. That's the key thing here.

McCarthy didn’t silence them, but employers and other organizations did when they blackballed people accused by McCarthy, no matter how spurious the accusation was.

In this instance, SumOfUs is McCarthy; MasterCard is the “employer” doing McCarthy’s bidding.

 

[QI 541]

McCarthy accused people but never silenced them; he was only a senator after all and had no power to do so. People he accused naturally defended themselves.
And if you bring up HUAC, they confronted and accused people as well but again, they never silenced them. That's the key thing here.

And antifa isn't trying to silence you either, they're just suggesting that a private business might not want to tarnish their image or aid in racism by doing business with a bunch of white supremacists. They're free to continue being racists without their mastercards.

 

[Picnic_Boy]

McCarthy accused people but never silenced them; he was only a senator after all and had no power to do so. People he accused naturally defended themselves.
And if you bring up HUAC, they confronted and accused people as well but again, they never silenced them. That's the key thing here.

But McCarthy (damn him!) dared to go after the glimmering aristocracy of Hollywood, not the unwashed masses of ugly commoners that these activists justly want to punish.

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

And antifa isn't trying to silence you either

Dead wrong.

they're just suggesting that a private business might not want to tarnish their image or aid in racism by doing business with a bunch of white supremacists. They're free to continue being racists without their mastercards.

Don't you rag on your strawman of libertarians for this exact same type of rhetoric?

 

[Ruin]

You're wrong, my assumption is that they're both naturally stupid, but one of them is slightly more stupid than the other at any given time.

Tell us more about your superior intelligence. Are you an active member of MENSA? Do you possess a postgraduate degree from an Ivy league college or prestigious research institution like MIT? Have you published any papers in accredited academic journals?

If you possess a high level of intelligence why are you incapable of debating without relying on insults?

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

And antifa isn't trying to silence you either, they're just suggesting that a private business might not want to tarnish their image or aid in racism by doing business with a bunch of white supremacists. They're free to continue being racists without their mastercards.

Ok for real tho, does your Wrangler know you're sneaking internet time again?

 

[QI 541]

Dead wrong.

Don't you rag on your strawman of libertarians for this exact same type of rhetoric?

Looks like someone can't understand sarcasm.

Tell us more about your superior intelligence. Are you an active member of MENSA? Do you possess a postgraduate degree from an Ivy league college or prestigious research institution like MIT? Have you published any papers in accredited academic journals?

If you possess a high level of intelligence why are you incapable of debating without relying on insults?

I don't know what you're projecting onto me but you should probably stop before you make yourself look even more stupid.

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

Looks like someone can't understand sarcasm.

With how dumb the rest of your posts have been, I honestly couldn't tell.

 

[KeyserBroze]

I don't know what you're projecting onto me but you should probably stop before you make yourself look even more stupid.

I noticed you don't currently have an avatar, have one on me:

 

[Ledian]

And antifa isn't trying to silence you either, they're just suggesting that a private business might not want to tarnish their image or aid in racism by doing business with a bunch of white supremacists. They're free to continue being racists without their mastercards.

Okay if that's how you see it.

You're a white supremacist. Why? Why do I have to prove it? And saying you're not only proves you're a fascist you racist.

There, there's the entire issue with all of this.