PayPal and the ADL announced on Monday that they will begin collaborating on research efforts to track down and cut off the funding for “extremist movements.”
In a joint statement, PayPal, the payment processor founded by Elon Musk and libertarian philanphropist Peter Thiel, and the ADL, the anti-free speech “Jewish special interest group,” declared that they were starting a partnership initiative “to fight extremism and hate through the financial industry.” The partnership would seemingly be focused on research “to address the urgent need to understand how extremist and hate movements throughout the U.S. are attempting to leverage financial platforms to fund criminal activity.”
The research effort would be led by the ADL’s Center on Extremism, and will work on “uncovering and disrupting the financial pipelines that support extremist and hate movements,” along with focusing on “actors and networks spreading on profiting from all forms of hate and bigotry against any community.” Other groups such as the League of United Latin American Citizens will also work with PayPal and the ADL in order to “protect marginalised communities against extremism.”
We’re excited to announce a new partnership with @PayPal to fight extremism and hate.
We’ve launched a research effort to understand how extremists leverage financial platforms to fund criminal activity. To read more: https://t.co/1iQVHVWBpV pic.twitter.com/1LgISDPsos— ADL (@ADL) July 26, 2021
“By identifying partners across sectors with common goals and complementary resources, we can make an even greater impact than any of us could do on our own,” said Aaron Karczmer, Chief Risk Officer and EVP, Risk and Platforms, PayPal. “We are excited to partner with the ADL, other non-profits and law enforcement in our fight against hate in all its forms.”
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“All of us, including in the private sector, have a critical role to play in fighting the spread of extremism and hate. With this new initiative, we’re setting a new standard for companies to bring their expertise to critical social issues,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL. “We have a unique opportunity to further understand how hate spreads and develop key insights that will inform the efforts of the financial industry, law enforcement, and our communities in mitigating extremist threats.”
The pivot from tackling the funding of “criminal activity” to instead simply “hate and bigotry” may not surprise many who are familiar with the activity of the ADL, who have often declared many normal, mainstream conservative ideas to fall into that category, suggesting it will not just be anyone involved in criminal acts who may end up targeted by this program.
America First conservatives, including congressional candidate Laura Loomer, recently deplatformed commentator Nick Fuentes, and Ali Alexander, the organiser of many of the Stop the Steal parades, have already been previously deplatformed from PayPal, with all of them also having been attacked in hitpieces by the ADL themselves.