MasterCard and Visa ban David Horowitz's anti-SPLC think tank donation accounts

[Anti Federalist]

Jebus, I hate having to defend Horowitz of all people...but this is a new front and important.

Apparently, if the SPLC calls you a hate group, then you can be "unbanked".

This is also troubling because Visa and MasterCard are, for all intents and purposes, monopolies.

They got everybody convinced to use their payment system for money and now they flex their muscle.


David Horowitz: Visa, Mastercard Cut Off Payments to My Think Tank Based on SPLC ‘Hate Group’ Label

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/08/23/david-horowitz-visa-mastercard-cut-off-payments-to-my-think-tank-based-on-splc-hate-group-label/

David Horowitz Freeom Foundation has been blocked from accepting credit card donations by Visa and Mastercard.

23 Aug 2018

The David Horowitz Freedom Center has had their donation processing system blocked by Visa and Mastercard allegedly following a campaign by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center stated in a recent email that its ability to accept donations by credit card has been disabled by both Visa and Mastercard following a campaign by the SPLC to label the Freedom Center as a hate group. This situation comes shortly after Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch was forced off the funding platform Patreon following pressure from Mastercard.

The Freedom Center is the next target of the SPLC, and they are using Mastercard and Visa again in their attempt to shut down conservative voices. In an email sent to supporters, Horowitz outlined how the SPLC had convinced Mastercard and Visa to block the Freedom Center from receiving payments and donations via credit card. In the email, Horowitz requested that supporters send donations via check to a P.O. Box.

In the email to supporters, the Freedom Center lashed out at the move by Mastercard and Visa, saying: “this blow could be the end of the Freedom Center. Decades of work, down the drain because the hateful Left wants to squash free speech and silence an organization that dares to question them.

https://i.imgur.com/2wsDdli.jpg

Breitbart News reached out to David Horowitz who provided the following comment:

We have been attacked by the left wing hate machine whose goal is to suppress and silence conservative voices. This is the work of a Soros funded Media Matters and Southern Poverty Law Center operation. It’s cynical, calculated and supported by the Democratic Party. The reason Mastercard and Visa gave us for cutting us off and thus sabotaging our online fund-raising operation is that the SPLC told them that we were a hate group. It is wrong to focus on the Tech heads as the culprits because as businessmen they have a vested interest in keeping their platforms politically neutral. They have been threatened by Senator Mark Warner and other Democrats if they don’t censor conservatives. The fact that Mastercard and Visa are now part of this juggernaut indicates how dangerous this has become.

Breitbart News reached out to both Visa and Mastercard for comment on the issue but has yet to receive a reply.

[oyarde]

They should just be using checks , bitcoin , cash , debit and paypal then in the future ?

[Swordsmyth]

This will not be the last we hear of this kind of thing, they will not stop now until something happens to make them stop.

[AuH20]

Now he knows how it feels, after he went after our people for trivial nonsense.

[Anti Globalist]

He didn't care when it was happening to other people but now that its happened to him he gets all pissed.

[Origanalist]

So what's the end game here? Visa and Mastercard with guidance from the splc will now be judges of who will be 'unpersons'? Do they really think they are that powerful? What happens to those that will inevitably offer a alternative?

[Swordsmyth]

So what's the end game here?
Revelation 13:16-17 King James Version (KJV)

16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.


Visa and Mastercard with guidance from the splc will now be judges of who will be 'unpersons'?
That is their plan.


Do they really think they are that powerful?
They do, we shall see if they are correct.


What happens to those that will inevitably offer a alternative?
AntiFa terrorism? Government action?

[devil21]

Just send your money NOW! It's an emergency, dontcha know?

Horowitz is obviously controlled opposition. Why would the SPLC attack him? He pushes the same anti-muslim, pro-war rhetoric that the SPLC loves. The SPLC isn't "left". The SPLC (along with the ADL) is the attack dog of Zionists. Horowitz has no problem with zionism.

[Origanalist]

Just send your money NOW! It's an emergency, dontcha know?

Horowitz is obviously controlled opposition. Why would the SPLC attack him? He pushes the same anti-muslim, pro-war rhetoric that the SPLC loves. The SPLC isn't "left". The SPLC (along with the ADL) is the attack dog of Zionists. Horowitz has no problem with zionism.

I completely agree, but this stuff is taking a ugly turn as far as I'm concerned. Maybe it's for the best, let's get this battle started already. I'm not getting any younger.

[Bern]

Horowitz is ass. The SPLC is dangerous ass.

[Swordsmyth]

Just send your money NOW! It's an emergency, dontcha know?

Horowitz is obviously controlled opposition. Why would the SPLC attack him? He pushes the same anti-muslim, pro-war rhetoric that the SPLC loves. The SPLC isn't "left". The SPLC (along with the ADL) is the attack dog of Zionists. Horowitz has no problem with zionism.
Actually the SPLC is pro-muslim because they want to destroy America, I see this as a case of one monster fighting another, I don't shed a tear for Horowitz but the precedent is dangerous to us.

[bunklocoempire]

Competing currencies is what America is. (supposed to be)

Unfortunately, ignorance, convenience and laziness. Flawed man exploiting flawed man. Wars cost "nothing" with easy, approved, fiat.

Let's see who is 'Merican, and let's see who goes crying to their favorite unaccountable flawed-human gov gov.

Treat it like Battlefield 5 - go find a better game to play. Quick.

[shakey1]

Why would credit card companies be interested in taking sides?

[Anti Federalist]

Just send your money NOW! It's an emergency, dontcha know?

Horowitz is obviously controlled opposition. Why would the SPLC attack him? He pushes the same anti-muslim, pro-war rhetoric that the SPLC loves. The SPLC isn't "left". The SPLC (along with the ADL) is the attack dog of Zionists. Horowitz has no problem with zionism.

Are you saying the facts in this case are incorrect?

I have no reason to doubt for a minute that these facts are true.

The credit card companies shut down the accounts of a political group that was specifically targeting the SPLC.

They did this based on the recommendations of...the SPLC.

Who has, over the past twenty years or so ingratiated itself into government and business and law enforcement as the sole arbitrator and decider of what is "racist".

And being branded "racist" is all it takes in modern day AmeriKa to utterly destroy you.

[Anti Federalist]

Revelation 13:16-17 King James Version (KJV)

16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

That is their plan.

They do, we shall see if they are correct.

AntiFa terrorism? Government action?

Owe ya a rep.

[Anti Federalist]

Why would credit card companies be interested in taking sides?

Well, I guess because, given their monopoly status, they just want to flex their muscles a bit. They have pretty much everybody swiping debit and credit cards for transactions as small as a pack of gum, every one of which they get a cut of the action on.

Or perhaps years of diversity hiring of university educated cultural Marxists and social justice warriors, there are enough of them in leadership positions that they can exercise SJW power at the expense of profits.

[CCTelander]

Switch to cryptocurrencies. Problem solved.

[Anti Federalist]

Switch to cryptocurrencies. Problem solved.

Those are electronic as well, and could just as easily be cut off.

PMs and cash are about the only options that I see.

[devil21]

Are you saying the facts in this case are incorrect?

I have no reason to doubt for a minute that these facts are true.

The credit card companies shut down the accounts of a political group that was specifically targeting the SPLC.

They did this based on the recommendations of...the SPLC.

Who has, over the past twenty years or so ingratiated itself into government and business and law enforcement as the sole arbitrator and decider of what is "racist".

And being branded "racist" is all it takes in modern day AmeriKa to utterly destroy you.

It's also very easy for unscrupulous people to "ride the wave" and claim they're being targeted, when they are not, to bring attention and raise donations. Maybe I missed it but I saw no proof of VISA/MC cutting their payment services, only a post that uncannily resembled the breathless pleas of victimization of a campaign fundraising email, complete with "Emergency Donations Needed to Fight XXXXXXXXXXXX. Send your check right now to XXXXXXXX!"

Sorry, I require evidence these days. VISA/MC would have sent at least a letter notifying of suspension of service, which is easily scanned and posted. Scammers abound. Especially those with...errr...."questionable" credentials like that guy.

CNBC's tagline these days is "GET YOURS!" Which also means fuck everyone else, the SHTF soon so milk everything and everyone you can, while you still can.

[Anti Federalist]

It's also very easy for unscrupulous people to "ride the wave" and claim they're being targeted, when they are not, to bring attention and raise donations. Maybe I missed it but I saw no proof of VISA/MC cutting their payment services, only a post that uncannily resembled the breathless pleas of victimization of a campaign fundraising email, complete with "Emergency Donations Needed to Fight XXXXXXXXXXXX. Send your check right now to XXXXXXXX!"

Sorry, I require evidence these days. VISA/MC would have sent at least a letter notifying of suspension of service, which is easily scanned and posted. Scammers abound. Especially those with...errr...."questionable" credentials like that guy.

CNBC's tagline these days is "GET YOURS!" Which also means fuck everyone else, the SHTF soon so milk everything and everyone you can, while you still can.

Fair enough.

Some quick Screwgling failed to get any results past what is already posted.

Maybe somebody will post an official letter or notice from Visa/Mastercard on this.

[phill4paul]

It's also very easy for unscrupulous people to "ride the wave" and claim they're being targeted, when they are not, to bring attention and raise donations. Maybe I missed it but I saw no proof of VISA/MC cutting their payment services, only a post that uncannily resembled the breathless pleas of victimization of a campaign fundraising email, complete with "Emergency Donations Needed to Fight XXXXXXXXXXXX. Send your check right now to XXXXXXXX!"

Sorry, I require evidence these days. VISA/MC would have sent at least a letter notifying of suspension of service, which is easily scanned and posted. Scammers abound. Especially those with...errr...."questionable" credentials like that guy.

CNBC's tagline these days is "GET YOURS!" Which also means fuck everyone else, the SHTF soon so milk everything and everyone you can, while you still can.

Couldn't the letter just be faked?

[dannno]

Those are electronic as well, and could just as easily be cut off.

PMs and cash are about the only options that I see.

PMs are fine, fiat cash is no good - in the long run we are better off with gold certificates, or even bitcoin/crypto certificates (at one point somebody was making coins that were worth a bitcoin, they could make denominations)

Crypto can't really be cut off without tearing down the entire internet infrastructure. It is decentralized and some cyrpto is untraceable.

The benefits are that in our connected society, you can transfer wealth long distances without using the postal service or a banking institution.

Gold and paper certificates are better for giving to your neighbor or the store down the street. Gold will last longer than paper or bitcoin.

They all have valuable uses, fiat needs to go tho.

[Bern]

Are you saying the facts in this case are incorrect?
...

Horowitz claimed:
... The reason Mastercard and Visa gave us for cutting us off and thus sabotaging our online fund-raising operation is that the SPLC told them that we were a hate group. ...

If he has proof to back up that claim (an email, letter or recorded phone conversation), he should definitely publish it. The only place this story is being published is Brietbart and alt-right places that are not taken seriously by the Joe Sixpacks that I talk to.

[pcosmar]

Further proof that the SPLC is a malignant arm of Government.

I thought they had been thoroughly discredited,, but it seems not.

[devil21]

Couldn't the letter just be faked?

Of course. At least make 'em earn it by engaging in a material attempt to defraud instead of handing over money based on mere allegations alone!

Or hey maybe I'm wrong and the SPLC did somehow get VISA/MC to shoot themselves in the foot and cancel a revenue stream. I'm not betting on it.

(Besides, a website like that almost certainly wouldn't actually have a contract directly with VISA/MC. It would have a third party payment processor, called a "payment facilitator".)

[phill4paul]

Of course. At least make 'em earn it by engaging in a material attempt to defraud instead of handing over money based on mere allegations alone!

Or hey maybe I'm wrong and the SPLC did somehow get VISA/MC to shoot themselves in the foot and cancel a revenue stream. I'm not betting on it.

Try making a $.01 donation using VISA/MASTERCARD and see if it goes through. BE the investigative reporter!

[devil21]

Try making a $.01 donation using VISA/MASTERCARD and see if it goes through. BE the investigative reporter!

I wouldn't pee on him if he was on fire, much less actually donate a penny just to verify.


“David Horowitz is an enormously important thinker among American conservatives.”

—The Weekly Standard

That's all I needed to see. Controlled opposition but by all means send that emergency check so he can fight against "the left".

[Swordsmyth]

Why would credit card companies be interested in taking sides?

Power, when you have more money than you could spend if you dedicated your life to trying then power is the only thing left to pursue for sociopathic types, they don't get pleasure from building good things or enjoying the simple things in life.

[Swordsmyth]

I don't know for sure if this is a lie but I doubt Visa/MC would let him just say it if it wasn't true, unless they are all in on it to condition people to the idea, but in that case it doesn't matter if it is fake, the canary in the coal mine just died.

[Anti Federalist]

Both Mastercard and Visa have given no statement on the matter.

That's the latest that comes back from duckduckgo.

[Origanalist]

That's the latest that comes back from duckduckgo.

It's hard to believe anything anymore, your only option is to keep your powder dry and wait for the truth to come out.

[phill4paul]

I wouldn't pee on him if he was on fire, much less actually donate a penny just to verify.



That's all I needed to see. Controlled opposition but by all means send that emergency check so he can fight against "the left".

Soooo..ya got nothing. <shrug> Not like that is something new.

[devil21]

Soooo..ya got nothing. <shrug> Not like that is something new.

You're welcome to try. Seems he's someone you trust and have some interest in defending so why should I be the guinea pig?

That question is rhetorical because I guarantee you that your credit card transaction will go through just fine.

(And why the personal attack? Are you a neocon now Phil?)

[Anti Federalist]

You're welcome to try. Seems he's someone you trust and have some interest in defending so why should I be the guinea pig?

That question is rhetorical because I guarantee you that your credit card transaction will go through just fine.

(And why the personal attack? Are you a neocon now Phil?)

I can't speak for Phil, but I'm pretty sure he is not defending Horowitz.

I know I'm not.

I'm pointing out that, if true, this is an extraordinarily dangerous precedent to set.

Ron Paul has been listed on SPLC's "Hate Group" watch lists.

How well would have our multi million dollar money bombs have gone if, just hours before, Visa/Mastercard announced they would stop processing all donations made with CCs?

[Anti Federalist]

Looks like it was for real...

David Horowitz Wins Credit Card Donation Showdown, Credits Breitbart, Drudge

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/08/25/david-horowitz-wins-credit-card-donation-showdown-credits-breitbart-drudge/

A Worldpay spokesperson told Breitbart News in a statement:

Recently, we became aware of some merchants that had processing services inadvertently disabled without the proper internal reviews. Which was the case in this situation. These merchants have had or are in the process of having their services re-enabled.

David Horowitz reached out to Breitbart News with an exclusive statement on the events of the past week, which can be read in full below:

Here is what happened. Last Tuesday the Freedom Center was informed by WorldPay, which handles its online donations, that Mastercard would no longer complete transactions for the Freedom Center because it had been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and a similarly leftist organization called ColorofChange.org. This is what we were told by MasterCard: “The organization Color of Change has published an updated website named bloodmoney.org and within it has listed a number of merchants that purport to accept Mastercard and have content which is hateful in nature. .. [and] which may be advocating for violence. We have identified the sites below as belonging to your institution…”

Just as in Alice in Wonderland: the verdict before the trial. The Freedom Center was judged guilty of “hate crimes” without a chance to protest and its online fundraising was blocked. Because on line fundraising is the lifeblood of our organization, this was an existential threat to our future. We were mobilizing for a costly legal proceeding against Mastercard when, on Friday afternoon, four days after the attempt to destroy us, WorldPay and MasterCard backed down and informed us they were restoring our online services and donations.
Why this reversal? We believe it was due to the massive support we received across the Internet when the story broke, starting with Breitbart and then picked up by the Drudge Report. Rush Limbaugh, Newsmax, OAN, The Daily Caller, Ricochet, Crowder, Gateway Pundit, Volnation, Canada Free Press and a host of other sites, who correctly reported this attack on us as an attack on freedom of speech itself and a calculated effort by networked organizations of the left to pressure corporations like Mastercard and Visa to collaborate in their determined effort to erase conservatism from our national political dialogue.

One thing we know for sure is that despite this defeat, the left will keep up the pressure and the same thing will happen again—if not to the Freedom Center then to other conservative organizations and individuals. This effort to shut down conservatism’s ability to raise the funds that make its voice heard was not the result of an arbitrary decision by some politically correct middle manager at Mastercard. It was a decision at the highest corporate levels and the result of an elaborate and carefully designed campaign by leftist to silence conservative voices on the Internet and therefore in America’s national dialogue. This campaign is masterminded by two George Soros-funded organizations– Media Matters, which has waged a holy war against conservatives in the media for two decades, and The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has managed to get itself taken seriously as an authority on “hate speech” and “hate groups” by a credulous and collaborative mainstream press. Thus a sort of tape loop has been created in which the SPLC stigmatizes these groups by featuring them on its “hate maps,” associating them with “neo fascism” and “racism” and putting them on the equivalent of Joseph McCarthy’s subversives list which the mainstream media then obligingly uses in its reporting and activist organizations like Color of Change and bloodmoney.org in lobbying corporations such as Mastercard and social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

There is a method in the madness of this Soros-funded network. Its constituent parts collaborate in transforming the reasonable policy differences that are actually the health of a democracy into dire examples of racial hostility and hatred. Thus conservative concerns for federal immigration laws and secure borders become anti-immigrant bigotry and hateful racism. Thus the Freedom Center’s campaign against anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas university groups makes it not only a “hate group,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, but its eponymous CEO “the Godfather of the anti-Muslim movement in America.” When these slanders are magnified by the reporting of a liberal press, it is little wonder a corporation like Mastercard feels like it might be next as a target who enables hate speech, and joins the fray.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has gotten away with this hatred masquerading as anti-hate for far too long. The SPLC recently paid a $3.4 million settlement to Majid Nawaz, a devout Muslim and also a fierce critic of Islamic terrorism after it labeled him an “anti-Muslim extremist.” All the other dozens of conservative groups similarly slandered should be developing their own legal defense funds to go after this reckless and mendacious organization and its enemies list. The David Horowitz Freedom Center certainly is.

While the Freedom Center is glad to have won this recent battle against the left’s effort to shut it down, as we’ve noted we believe the threat to free speech is greater than our particular case and also very much far from over. The enemies of free speech may have been rebuffed this time, but they feel that they have the winning hand and will continue to play it until America has become a one party state of the politically correct with conservative views ruthlessly suppressed. Our own Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.org still has two of his funding pages shut down by MasterCard. Just this past week, David Horowitz’s Twitter page was locked down for the better part of a day, until a direct appeal to Twitter ceo Jack Dorsey reversed the ban. Prager U. was suddenly disappeared from Facebook until protests cause it to relent. Alex Jones and InfoWars are still residing in the darkness imposed by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

The censorship powers of Social Media are awesome and historically unprecedented. When they are amplified by the arbitrary financial power of corporations such as Mastercard and Visa, the result is a leviathan willing and able to crush our basic freedoms and constitutional guarantees without a moment’s remorse. What those of us who care about free speech must do now is form a coalition across party lines and ideologies in defense of free speech. Freed speech is the most basic freedom we have because all our other freedoms are dependent on it. We may disagree with our coalition partners about everything under the sun, except this. The right to dissent and to disagree is what separates us from countries in which civil wars and coup d’etats are commonplace. Private corporations cannot be the arbiters of free speech. Ben Wizner, the head of the ACLU’s Free Speech and Technology Project, said exactly that only this week. His sentiment was repeated word for word by the conservative Federalist site. Liberty Counsel is organizing a coalition of 60 mainly religious organizations who have been slandered as “hate groups” by the venomous SPLC (SPLC: Hate Machine – https://www.frontpagemag.com/search/site/SpLC). We must contact our representatives and call for a Congressional investigation of the war the left has launched on our freedom to dissent and disagree. If we cannot preserve freedom of conscience and freedom of speech, we cannot defend any of our freedoms, and we will have lost everything.

[devil21]

His various website donations are served by anedot.com, not worldpay.

People still don't seem to understand that most of this stuff is controlled opposition playing the sheep out of their money. Control both sides of an issue, thus locking the unsuspecting person into a predefined black or white choice.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1hd4lA2wx1qzutbp.jpg

[Swordsmyth]

One day they will make another "mistake" and if the response is weak enough they will not walk it back, then they will begin to multiply the "mistakes".

[enhanced_deficit]

That's pretty stunning. And this may have additional political reverberations, think he comes from a family of holocaust survivors if I'm not mistaken.

[donnay]

DAVID HOROWITZ FREEDOM CENTER DECLARES VICTORY OVER CENSORSHIP ATTEMPT
...And calls for a coalition across party and ideological lines to defend free speech.

August 27, 2018 Frontpagemag.com

The David Horowitz Freedom Center won a major battle on Friday afternoon, defeating well-financed leftwing groups trying to run it out of business and suffocate free speech in our country.

Here is what happened. Last Tuesday the Freedom Center was informed by WorldPay, which handles its online donations, that Mastercard would no longer complete transactions for the Freedom Center because it had been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and a similarly leftist organization called Color of Change.org. This is what we were told by MasterCard: “The organization Color of Change has published an updated website named bloodmoney.org and within it has listed a number of merchants that purport to accept Mastercard and have content which is hateful in nature. .. [and] which may be advocating for violence. We have identified the sites below as belonging to your institution…”

Just as in Alice in Wonderland: the verdict before the trial. The Freedom Center was judged guilty of “hate crimes” without a chance to protest and its online fundraising was blocked. Because on line fundraising is the lifeblood of our organization, this was an existential threat to our future. We were mobilizing for a costly legal proceeding against Mastercard when, on Friday afternoon, four days after the attempt to destroy us, WorldPay and MasterCard backed down and informed us they were restoring our online services and donations.

Why this reversal? We believe it was due to the massive support we received across the Internet when the story broke, starting with Breitbart and immediately picked up by the Drudge Report. Rush Limbaugh, Newsmax, OAN, The Daily Caller, Ricochet, Crowder, Gateway Pundit, Volnation, Canada Free Press and a host of other sites, who correctly reported this attack on us as an attack on freedom of speech itself and a calculated effort by networked organizations of the left to pressure corporations like Mastercard and Visa to collaborate in their determined effort to erase conservatism from our national political dialogue.

One thing we know for sure is that despite this defeat, the left will keep up the pressure and the same thing will happen again—if not to the Freedom Center then to other conservative organizations and individuals. This effort to shut down conservatism’s ability to raise the funds that make its voice heard was not the result of an arbitrary decision by some politically correct middle manager at Mastercard. It was a decision at the highest corporate levels and the result of an elaborate and carefully designed campaign by leftist to silence conservative voices on the Internet and therefore in America’s national dialogue. This campaign is masterminded by two George Soros-funded organizations-- Media Matters, which has waged a holy war against conservatives in the media for two decades, and The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has managed to get itself taken seriously as an authority on “hate speech” and “hate groups” by a credulous and collaborative mainstream press. Thus a sort of tape loop has been created in which the SPLC stigmatizes these groups by featuring them on its “hate maps,” associating them with “neo fascism” and “racism” and putting them on the equivalent of Joseph McCarthy’s subversives list which the mainstream media then obligingly uses in its reporting and activist organizations like Color of Change and bloodmoney.org in lobbying corporations such as Mastercard and social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

There is a method in the madness of this Soros-funded network. Its constituent parts collaborate in transforming the reasonable policy differences that are actually the health of a democracy into dire examples of racial hostility and hatred. Thus conservative concerns for federal immigration laws and secure borders become anti-immigrant bigotry and hateful racism. Thus the Freedom Center’s campaign against anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas university groups makes it not only a “hate group,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, but its eponymous CEO “the Godfather of the anti-Muslim movement in America.” When these slanders are magnified by the reporting of a liberal press, it is little wonder a corporation like Mastercard feels like it might be next as a target who enables hate speech, and joins the fray.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has gotten away with this hatred masquerading as anti-hate for far too long. The SPLC recently paid a $3.4 million settlement to Majid Nawaz, a devout Muslim and also a fierce critic of Islamic terrorism after it labeled him an “anti-Muslim extremist.” All the other dozens of conservative groups similarly slandered should be developing their own legal defense funds to go after this reckless and mendacious organization and its enemies list. The David Horowitz Freedom Center certainly is.

While the Freedom Center is glad to have won this recent battle against the left’s effort to shut it down, as we’ve noted we believe the threat to free speech is greater than our particular case and also very much far from over. The enemies of free speech may have been rebuffed this time, but they feel that they have the winning hand and will continue to play it until America has become a one party state of the politically correct with conservative views ruthlessly suppressed. Our own Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.org still has two of his funding pages shut down by MasterCard. Just this past week, David Horowitz’s Twitter page was locked down for the better part of a day, until a direct appeal to Twitter ceo Jack Dorsey reversed the ban. Prager U. was suddenly disappeared from Facebook until protests cause it to relent. Alex Jones and InfoWars are still residing in the darkness imposed by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

The censorship powers of Social Media are awesome and historically unprecedented. When they are amplified by the arbitrary financial power of corporations such as Mastercard and Visa, the result is a leviathan willing and able to crush our basic freedoms and constitutional guarantees without a moment’s remorse. What those of us who care about free speech must do now is form a coalition across party lines and ideologies in defense of free speech. Freed speech is the most basic freedom we have because all our other freedoms are dependent on it. We may disagree with our coalition partners about everything under the sun, except this. The right to dissent and to disagree is what separates us from countries in which civil wars and coup d’etats are commonplace. Private corporations cannot be the arbiters of free speech. Ben Wizner, the head of the ACLU’s Free Speech and Technology Project, said exactly that only this week. His sentiment was repeated word for word by the conservative Federalist site. Liberty Counsel is organizing a coalition of 60 mainly religious organizations who have been slandered as “hate groups” by the venomous SPLC (SPLC: Hate Machine). We must contact our representatives and call for a Congressional investigation of the war the left has launched on our freedom to dissent and disagree. If we cannot preserve freedom of conscience and freedom of speech, we cannot defend any of our freedoms, and we will have lost everything.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271154/david-horowitz-freedom-center-declares-victory-frontpagemagcom?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fzen.yan dex.com

[Bern]

So the actual text of the statements from Worldpay were not published, but assuming that Horowitz is providing an accurate description of the communication, the original story got some facts wrong, but the gist was true.

1. Color of Change pressured MasterCard to cancel processing/account for Freedom Center. At a minimum, SPLC labeling Freedom Center as a hate group added support to CoC's campaign.

2. MasterCard told WorldPay it wouldn't process transactions for Freedom Center.

3. WorldPay canceled Freedom Center account (which also canceled ability to process VISA transactions).

4. There is documentation to these claims and the issue was going to end up in court where, presumably, the evidence would have been presented.

Less clear are Horowitz's claims in the original reporting about Sen. Mark Warner and other (Democrat) politicians. Not sure what, if any, role he/they might have played in the issue.

It's a portend of things to come when the age of digital banking chokes out the last vestiges of the cash economy and monopoly control over transactions can be weaponized for political purposes.