PayPal Bans YouTuber Who Thinks Non-White People Are a Separate Species
Credit to Author: Lauren Kaori Gurley| Date: Wed, 06 Nov 2019 20:29:39 +0000
PayPal has suspended the account of Stefan Molyneux, a self-described “philosopher” who has amassed nearly one million followers on YouTube with his vlogs about eugenics and other debunked forms of “scientific racism.”
“After conducting an extensive review, PayPal has made the decision to discontinue our business relationship with Stefan Molyneux,” Kim Eichorn, a spokesperson for PalPal told Motherboard.
PayPal’s decision to sever ties with Molyneux, who earned much of his income from donations on PayPal, follows its removal of Alex Jones, Richard Spencer, the Proud Boys, and mostly recently, an account run by the Klu Klux Klan.
Since becoming active online in 2004, Molyneux has encouraged thousands of fans to adopt his beliefs in biological determinism and the inferiority of Blacks, Latinos, and Jews, masking his racism by describing himself as a “philosopher.” Nandini Jammi, an activist who first flagged Molyneux’s account to PayPal, speculated that this label has helped him promote racist ideas on multiple platforms, while self-proclaimed “white nationalists” have been banned.
On his YouTube channel, Molyneux has said that “blacks are collectively less intelligent” than white people and that “Hispanic communities don’t end up acting the same” as the rest of the population. He has also told his audience that he does not “view humanity as a single species.”
PayPal’s decision to remove Molyneux from its platform follows efforts by activist Nandini Jammi to have him removed, including an October 14 tweet that asked her followers to reach out to PayPal to demand his removal. Jammi first flagged Molyneux’s account to PayPal in April, and the company responded saying it would open an investigation. This year, Jammi has used her Twitter account multiple times to sway fintech companies to ban far right organizations and personalities from using their services.
Despite losing access to PayPal, Molyneux still maintains on an active and prolific account on YouTube, as well as Twitter, where he and other white supremacist figures like Richard Spencer have continued to spread their messages.
This article originally appeared on VICE US.