At PJ Media, Robert Spencer concludes:
This action by Visa and MasterCard
is also ominous for American conservatives. Allum Bokhari, who covers Big Tech
for Breitbart, reported last July that “progressive activists
have launched well-funded campaigns aimed at payment processors, and
credit card companies, aimed at cutting the political right off from payment
and banking services.” Bokhari also noted that I myself was a victim of this in
2018: “Visa and Mastercard cut off payments to David Horowitz’s Freedom
Center. Horowitz later had the service restored, but Islam critic Robert
Spencer reported that he too was blacklisted by Mastercard, blaming it on
pressure from far-left activists.” Indeed: after a Leftist hate group published
an “exposé” about funding of “right-wing” groups, MasterCard cut me off, claiming it had done so because my website featured
“illegal content.” That is, content that Leftists don’t like.
Whatever you may think of me and of
other people that the Leftist establishment has targeted for destruction, the
implications of what is being done are clear. America is at a crossroads today.
The choice before us is whether we will continue to exist as a free society, or
whether we will become a totalitarian state in which holding the proper
opinions is an indispensable prerequisite of being able to function as a
citizen at all. Note that Visa’s Al Kelly said his company had decided to take
the step to suspend services in Russia because of “the unacceptable events that
we have witnessed.” What will Americans who dissent from the Leftist agenda do
when the credit card giants tell them that such dissent is “unacceptable” as
well?
If MasterCard and Visa offer their
services only to those with acceptable political opinions, it isn’t just Russia
that will ultimately be affected. At risk is the basic and hard-won principle
of equality of access to services. When that goes, our other freedoms will
swiftly follow — more swiftly than most Americans realize.
Read the rest here.
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