PayPal has terminated the account of domain registrar and web hosting company Epik for violating its “risk controls,” prompting angry letters and blog posts from Epik alleging conservative bias was to blame, Mashable reported.
Epik reportedly hadn’t taken the appropriate steps to legally offer Masterbucks, which let you pay for services both within Epik’s network and from partners. Moreover, the company was allegedly promoting tax evasion by touting the “tax advantages” of pouring money into the digital format. PayPal told Epik about these issues “over a month ago” and tried to cooperate on a solution, according to the source, but the two don’t appear to have come to an agreement.
Epik is unsurprisingly angry. Senior strategy and communications VP Robert Davis claimed that PayPal asked about issues that were supposedly “outside of any knowledge or experience” of Epik’s position as a domain registrar, such as money transmission licenses. Davis also accused PayPal of trying to “silence conservative voices” just ahead of the 2020 presidential election, echoing longstanding (but often disputed) claims from right-wing politicians and activists.
Not that Epik might have much recourse either way. If the leak is accurate, the company was offering an illegal currency despite warnings. That’s all the reason PayPal would need to sever ties, regardless of an account holder’s political leanings.
