PayPal smider Rebel News ud uden nogen som helst forklaring

PayPal, the online credit card processor, just cut off Rebel News.

I really need your help. I hate to say it, but this could actually destroy us.

Watch this video to see what happened:

We use PayPal to process about a million dollars a year. That covers half of our staff payroll. This could force us to lay off staff, which obviously we must not do.

We also fundraise for civil liberties lawyers to help more than 1,100 low-income people in our “Fight the Fines” project. Why is PayPal doing this?

We’ve had a six-year business relationship with PayPal, processing more than 150,000 transactions, totalling more than 8 million dollars. We’re a big client.

But with no notice at all, they just breached the contract.

They ambushed us.

They sent us a form letter, by email, after business hours, on Friday night before the weekend.

It wasn’t even signed by anyone, it had no contact info, there was no way to appeal it, no explanation, it just said we were cancelled.

You can see that email for yourself at SaveRebelNews.com — it’s quite something. 

They claim we violated their terms of service. But they didn’t say how or when or what or even suggest how to fix whatever the problem might be.

But it’s not true. I’ve read their terms of service carefully.

It says we can’t use PayPal to sell things like drugs or weapons or stolen property. Things like that. We don’t do anything even close to that — we’re a news site. We’ve never broken PayPal’s rules, ever. And they’ve never before said we have. And yet, on a Friday night, they simply cut off our business, immediately — no explanation, nothing.

That’s cancel culture.

And it’s also an attack on thousands of our customers who are PayPal users, and their rights, too.

On Monday, we had our lawyer write a friendly letter to PayPal, assuming this was just a mistake, giving them the benefit of the doubt. And I kept quiet about it in public.

But it’s been nearly a week, and they haven’t even acknowledged receipt of our letters. Our lawyers have phoned and left messages, but they haven’t got a call back. We’re bleeding — thousands of dollars a day.

I’ve posted our lawyer’s letter at SaveRebelNews.com too — you can read it there.

Look, this isn’t a mistake. It’s a cancel culture attack on the largest independent news agency in Canada.

It’s censorship. A credit card processing company has decided to breach its contract with us because we’re conservative.

I think it’s part of a coordinated attack on our news company. Remember, YouTube just demonetized us, and suspended us for a week. Now this, just days later. In both cases, we had a perfect track record — never a violation. Is that a coincidence?

And it just happens to coincide with Justin Trudeau introducing censorship legislation in Parliament targeting big tech companies that give platforms to his political critics.

The YouTube demonetization cost us $400,000. But this is much more dangerous. We have built so much of our business around PayPal; we have encouraged thousands of people to join PayPal just to do business with us; we have many people who automatically give a monthly contribution to us through PayPal — that’s just been shut down.

It gets worse, if you can believe it. At the same time, PayPal cancelled my personal account, and the account for our non-profit that we used to fundraise for the Red Cross after the Fort McMurray fire. 

This is political punishment. From a financial services company. That’s like China’s “social credit” system, where you can be banned from renting an apartment or flying on a plane if you criticize the Chinese Communist Party.

But this is Canada. And if an online bank can do this to you, why couldn’t your savings bank shut down your family chequing account? How about your phone company?

We’re bleeding heavily because of this. A million dollar loss. They want us to lay down and die.

Well, we’re not going to. We’re going to fight back because they’re wrong — legally and morally.

Please help us. I can think of two things for you to do — if you want to help us live.

1. Please share this video far and wide. Forward it to your friends. Let them know what is happening. They might not even believe it, but it is. Show them PayPal’s letter at SaveRebelNews.com.
   
2. Please help us fight back. I have instructed a legal dream team to file a lawsuit against PayPal as soon as next week, for breach of contract and for unlawful interference with economic relations. I expect we’ll sue the people who induced PayPal to breach its contract with us, too.

But PayPal is one of the biggest companies in the world — they’ve gotten rich off the lockdowns, just like Amazon has. They probably have 100 lawyers working for them. Fine. I like David and Goliath battles. 

And PayPal didn’t just harm us. They violated consumer protection laws — for thousands of PayPal users who just had their relationship with us destroyed for no good reason. That’s the kind of thing that financial regulators look at in the public interest. Our lawyers are reporting PayPal’s misconduct to financial services regulators. Again, they might think they can ignore us. But I don’t think they can ignore banking regulators, do you?

This part is where I really need your help. That lawsuit against PayPal will surely cost us $150,000 dollars. They’re going to try to do everything they can to beat us — because if we were to win, it would set a precedent that could stop Big Tech from cancelling people. So this is more than just them crushing Rebel News; they want to make sure they continue to be able to do this at will. That’s why we’ve got to win.

We need $150,000 in legal fees — please go to SaveRebelNews.com right now to chip in.

But unfortunately, that’s just part of it. Fighting PayPal is going to take a long time. And in the meantime, we’ve got a hole of almost a million dollars in the side of our boat. I know I often ask for help to fundraise for specific projects. Not today.

Today I’m asking you to help me save Rebel News — truly. Because we just can’t continue to operate as we have, with a million dollar hole. The math just doesn’t add up.

PayPal wants to kill us.

But we have to live. I promise I will fight with every ounce of strength I have. And so will our entire team. We’ll fight like our freedom depends on it. And we’ll fight like our jobs and our company depend on it.

Because they do.

If you have ever watched a Rebel News video, if you have ever felt like we stood up for you, like we stood up against the bullies, well, this is the time to help us in return. Will you help us against PayPal?

If you want Rebel News to survive this cancel culture attack, please go to SaveRebelNews.com.

This is the big one. Please go to SaveRebelNews.com to see the PayPal ambush letter, to see our lawyer’s reply, to help fund our lawsuit against PayPal, and if you can, to help us make up the million dollar shortfall so we can keep our full team of reporters.

Thank you.

Yours truly,

Ezra Levant

P.S. If PayPal can do this to us, a big customer, they can do this to anyone. We have to set the precedent that stops Big Tech companies from bullying people for their politics.

Please click here to help us fund our lawsuit against PayPal — and to help us make up the lost funds. 

P.P.S. If you prefer to help the old-fashioned way, please send a cheque payable to “Rebel News”, at:

PO Box 61056, Eglinton/Dufferin RO
Toronto, ON, Canada
M6E 5B2.

Thanks very much.