Reporters Beware: Your Bank Account is in the Powerful’s Crosshairs
By Michael Ashley and Robert Edward Grant
Imagine a world where the government directs banks to shut down reporters’ accounts who oppose them. Or even question them. Sounds like the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. Or Kim Jong-un’s North Korea.
Try the United States of America.
Today News Africa correspondent Simon Ateba learned this lesson when he committed the ultimate modern journalistic sin: he opposed power rather than sided with it.
Here’s what happened. On May 13 Press Secretary Jen Psaki held her last White House conference. After months of spinning the truth for the Biden administration on topics like voter integrity laws, first responder readiness due to vaccine mandates, gas price hikes, not to mention, colluding with social media companies to censor speech, she’s moved toMSNBC. Emulating other press secretaries’ cynical career trajectories, we can expect Psaki to capitalize on her serial mendacity—for more money.
But back to Psaki’s final press briefing.
Something unusual happened on her last day. “A black guy from Africa wanted to ask a question because she hasn’t called on him in fifteen months,” explains Jimmy Dore, host of The Jimmy Dore Show. “And what did she do? … She shushed him. You think I am kidding? Let’s watch.”
Dore then goes on to play back a video of the exchange. It begins with Psaki acknowledging her husband’s continual support of her. Then Psaki does what she usually does: calls on reporters in the first few rows for questions.
That’s when Ateba (from the back of the room) yells out his query: “Why don’t you take questions from across the room?”
Psaki tries to move on, but Ateba persists.
“Why don’t you take questions from across the room?” he asks. “Because that’s not what you’ve done for the past 15 months.”
Psaki refuses to dignify Ateba with a response. Instead, she proceeds to receive soft balls from the front row. This doesn’t sit well with Ateba so he presses Psaki for an answer, making things uncomfortable.
Finally, Mary Bruce, an ABC News Senior Correspondent steps in. Siding with power, not opposing it, she tells off her fellow journalist: “Simon,” she says, shouting Ateba down. “Please show some respect.”
But power—centralized, digital power—was not done with Ateba.
For his transgression, Ateba soon received notice from Stripe that the financial services company would no longer process payments to his news site.
Here’s the message he received, according to the New York Post:
Hi Simon, We’re writing to inform you that we have determined your business, todaynewsafrica.com … is in violation of the Stripe Services Agreement. Specifically, we are unable to accept payments for subscriptions over a year or extended warranties, as mentioned on our Restricted Businesses list,” reads a Sunday email signed by “The Stripe Team.”
“We’re applying a notice period of 10 days before taking action on your account. Until June 8, 2022, you can continue processing normally, but after this date, your account will be closed and you will no longer be able to accept payments. We will continue making payouts to your bank account until you receive all of your funds.”
We can’t say for sure if Stripe financially de-platformed Ateba. However, as the New York Post reports, such a move poses devastating implications for his news agency. “Stripe’s decision is a serious blow to Ateba’s seven-year-old publication, which relies on subscriptions rather than ad revenue. Ateba says that while other companies process payments, Stripe’s platform is the ‘industry standard’ and is used by other news sites.”
Unfortunately, Stripe’s actions have precedence. In our upcoming book NeuroMined: Triumphing over Technological Tyranny (Fast Company Press, 2023), we expose the historic dangers of techno-tyranny. One of the key ways authorities have and continue to exercise central control is via shutting down media dissenters.
Julian Assange, who made news when the UK granted his US extradition, was one of the first dissidents to suffer financial de-platforming. In 2010, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal blocked all donations to WikiLeaks.
Assange’s crime? Releasing 90,000 files, logging the true history of the war in Afghanistan, a disastrous military intervention the media supported in conjunction with the U.S. government, its military forces, and contractors.
Since then, those in power have increased efforts to silence dissidents. The most recent conspicuous example occurred earlier this year when the Freedom Convoy protested Canada’s overreach concerning COVID-19.
It’s estimated over 50,000 trucks and more than a half a million people turned out in freezing conditions to protest Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s health mandate. For weeks, they gridlocked streets, honking horns, and hosting peaceful gatherings. They also refused to deliver food and shipments until the government relinquished the order requiring all Canadian truckers be vaccinated or quarantined on their return from the U.S.
Moving swiftly to quash the rebellion, Trudeau invoked a War on Terror Law, entitled the Emergency Economic Measures Order. His government required financial institutions (banks, credit unions, co-ops, and credit card companies) to cease “providing any financial or related services” to anyone connected to the Freedom Convoy.
It didn’t stop there.
Trudeau went after the accounts of anyone connected to the protests. (This affiliation could be as minor as a trucker’s grandma submitting $15 to GiveSendGo.) Because of her donation, this little old lady could expect her bank to freeze all her accounts. And Visa to cancel her credit card.
To the south, American journalists recently felt similar wraith by the authorities for the crime of not supporting the Ukrainian war. This spring, PayPal cut off money to several left-wing media outlets, including Mintpress News, Consortium News, and Geopolitics and Empire, for questioning the mainstream drumbeat towards World War III.
Like Ateba, each outlet received a generic notice, this time from PayPal, stating they were locked out of accessing their funds for 180 days. Afterwards, PayPal would let them know how they might possibly access them. If at all. “We recently noticed an issue with your account,” their letters read. “Because of this issue, your account has been permanently limited. We understand this may be frustrating and inconvenient, but you’ll still be able to see your transaction history for a limited time.”
Notably, it’s signed PayPal, not by any actual human.
Also, just this month, PayPal informed users it would fine them $2,500 for misinformation—whatever that means. Just as pitifully, the payment platform had to backtrack immediately due to public backlash.
Yet, as our upcoming book makes clear, DeCent as in decentralized tech, offers an end-run around centralized tyranny. Already, several promising video platforms offer peer-to-peer streaming to bypass censorship constraints imposed by the likes of YouTube and Facebook.
Here are two alternatives (one of which you are using right now):
This company decentralizes video distribution to resist Big Tech censorship. Creators can monetize videos via cryptocurrency in the form of CoinPayments.
Since 2017, the written content platform (featuring pioneering work by Glenn Greenwald, Bari Weiss, and Andrew Sullivan) has enabled the public to engage directly in peer-to-peer relationships with journalists, paying subscription fees to support their work.
Of course, none of these platforms is a silver bullet. Either could be coopted or taken down at any time. What matters more is that we:
1. Develop growing awareness of techno tyranny.
2. Support and encourage a plurality of decentralized media services to combat authoritarian control.
Ultimately, the actions of Assange, Ateba, and other brave journalists are a threat to digital control. Much of the freedoms we now take for granted arose from an informed populace not long ago. Should the powers-that shouldn’t-be continue to quash dissent, we can expect further consolidation of their (growing) power. It’s therefore up to all of us to reassert our own. Now.