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PayPal bans Gab in wake of Pittsburgh mass shooting
Internet giants are continuing their crackdown on hate speech following the anti-Semitic mass shooting in Pittsburgh. PayPal has banned the social network Gab, a known haven for hate speech, after reports revealed that the shooter was a frequent poster and had signaled his intentions shortly before the attack. While PayPal didn't provide an immediate reason for the ban in its message to Gab, the payment platform told The Verge in a statement that it didn't accept a site that was "explicitly allowing the perpetuation of hate, violence or discriminatory intolerance."
PayPal cash withdraws are coming to Walmart stores
PayPal users will soon be able to withdraw and deposit money directly into their accounts at Walmart stores. It'll be the first time that PayPal users will be able to take out cash from their account balance in brick-and-mortar Walmart stores.
PayPal is the latest company to ban InfoWars
InfoWars has been issued another ban, this time from PayPal. The company notified InfoWars on Thursday that it would no longer process the site's store transactions, giving InfoWars 10 days to find a new processor. PayPal said the site had violated its "acceptable use policy," according to InfoWars. The payment company confirmed the move to The Verge. "Our values are the foundation for the decision we made this week," said a spokesperson. "We undertook an extensive review of the InfoWars sites, and found instances that promoted hate or discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions, which run counter to our core value of inclusion."
Why PayPal’s crackdown on ASMR creators should worry you
In June, China banned and excised videos of sound effects while claiming to cleanse its internet of pornography. YouTube had already demonetized the genre in a sex panic; now PayPal is banning people for life and holding individuals' funds, ignorant of the facts and marching lockstep to the tune of 8chan trolls enacting a campaign to punish "whores." The most bitter punchline in all this? A tiny percentage of the entire video genre is even remotely sexual, and those suffering — female creators — aren't even making sex content.
PayPal will instantly pay businesses after they make a sale
PayPal is adding a new feature for businesses that use its platform for their sales. Funds Now will let certain businesses in good standing -- that means without fraud concerns or an excess of customer complaints -- get instant access to funds from completed sales, even if there's an ongoing dispute. The company says that one of the biggest complaints from small businesses has been delays in accessing funds, which are sometimes upwards of 21 days long. Funds Now eliminates that wait by getting rid of any holds, delays and reserves on that cash.
PayPal's redesigned app is all about paying your friends
We wouldn't blame you for thinking PayPal's app has lost focus -- it seems more interested in investments and ordering food than on... well, paying people. It's a good thing the company is cleaning things up with a redesigned mobile app, then. The new version is a return to the basics of sending and receiving money, with the optional features shunted to a "more" menu. The home screen now focuses on notification cards (such as alerts when you've received funds) and includes a list of recently paid people and businesses in order to speed up your most common payments. Think of it like Instagram's Stories carousel, only here you're paying friends for your share of last night's pizza.
Apple Pay Cash leads Consumer Reports' first payment service test
Peer-to-peer mobile payment services are all the rage these days (eMarketer expects a 24 percent jump in US adoption in 2018), but which of them is actually the safest to use? Consumer Reports might have an idea. The publication has conducted its first head-to-head test of payment services, and it's clear that some services are better picks than others. While all of the payment platforms were "good enough to use," Apple Pay Cash was the victor due to its stronger-than-usual privacy and security.
Venmo's debit card turns your balance into real-world money
After months of testing, Venmo is ready to offer its own debit card in the US. The new piece of plastic now works at Mastercard-friendly locations instead of Visa (the company hasn't explained the switch), but the concept otherwise remains the same. The card lets you spend your Venmo balance at retail locations, and helps you split bills -- you can share transactions to have friends pay for their share of dinner or movie tickets. Naturally, you can use the Venmo mobile app to manage or disable a card.
Venmo won't let you pay or charge people from its website anymore
If you've ever used Venmo to pay someone your share of the electric bill or for a half a pizza, you probably did it from your smartphone. Most of the service's users do. There's a loyal subset of people who prefer using Venmo's website for all that, too, but they're all pretty upset right now. According to a statement included in users' May 2018 account summaries, Venmo will "phase out some of the functionality on the Venmo.com website over the coming months," and it's starting with the ability to send payment requests and complete charges from inside a web browser. (In a chilling coda, the company reiterates at the end of the statement that "this is just the start.")
Buskers in London are the first to accept tap-to-pay cards
The move toward a cashless society has created a problem for buskers: how do they get paid when many listeners won't have physical currency? There's now a solution on hand. The Mayor of London's office and iZettle (which was recently snapped up by PayPal) have partnered on a first-ever initiative that lets buskers accept tap-to-pay contributions. Participants plug special card readers into their smartphones and set a fixed donation amount -- after that, you just have to wave your card (or a compatible NFC device) to ensure a street performer gets paid.
Paypal lets you spend money in Gmail, YouTube and more
Android Pay users have been able to dip into their PayPal accounts for a little over a year. Now, the money transfer service has partnered with Google to provide a more seamless way to use it across products like Google Play, YouTube and Gmail.
Samsung Pay finally works with your PayPal Wallet
Samsung Pay support for PayPal was unveiled back in July of last year with promises that it would be ready "soon," but that clearly didn't happen -- you've had to use your regular payment cards in the months since. Whatever prompted the wait, it's ready. PayPal has started enabling support through Samsung's tap-to-pay feature, letting you draw from your Wallet's funds instead of a credit or debit card.
Credit card companies unite for a checkout button to take on PayPal
Even if you don't use PayPal to send money to friends, there's a good chance you've reached for their checkout button in online stores, which is tied to all of your payment information. It's simply easier than getting up and finding your wallet. Now, the major credit card companies -- Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover -- are joining forces for a checkout button of their very own, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg report. And yes, it means the end of Masterpass and Visa Checkout, services that attempted to replicate the easy PayPal experience.
PayPal to launch debit cards and traditional banking services
PayPal is apparently rolling out a number of traditional banking features, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The digital payment giant is offering users debit cards they can use to withdraw from ATMs, the ability to instantly deposit a check to their account by taking a photo of it and the option to have their employers direct-deposit their earnings to their account, among other products. PayPal, which has been testing those offerings over the past months, has teamed up with small banks to make all those possible. A Delaware bank will issue debit cards for the company, another bank in Georgia is in charge of depositing money to accounts of users who upload photos of their checks, while a bank in Utah will provide money for personal and small business loans.
PayPal settles with FTC over Venmo disclosure and transfer policies
The FTC filed a complaint against PayPal over its Venmo peer-to-peer payment service back in 2016. The trade commission alleged that Venmo did not adequately disclose that customer transfers to external bank accounts were subject to review and could be frozen or removed. The FTC's filing also said that Venmo misled consumers around privacy as well as how protected their accounts were and violated the Privacy and Safeguard Rules of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. PayPal has just settled with the FTC around these allegations. No monetary penalties have been levied for the infractions.
Why sneakerheads are leaving eBay for Detroit startup StockX
Buying a pair of new rare sneakers is harder than reselling them on StockX. To buy new, the Yeezy or Jordan gods have to smile upon you, giving you that winning raffle ticket at a local store or letting you beat the bots online. To resell, all you have to do is go to the StockX website and set a price. You don't take photos or haggle with potential buyers. Instead, you look at what price the shoes are selling for and list your pair at whatever amount you think someone will pay for them. Like a stock exchange, buyer and seller identities are kept from one another. StockX acts as a middleman, only releasing payment once it verifies that goods are authentic. It's this simplicity that has helped the company earn so many loyal users. StockX was founded in 2015 after Quicken Loans founder and CEO Dan Gilbert bought Campless -- an online repository for sneaker sales data -- from Josh Luber. As part of the purchase, Luber moved from his native Philadelphia to the Detroit metro area, taking up the mantle of StockX CEO and working from Gilbert's One Campus Martius building downtown. In a little under three years, the company has become the go-to source for buying rare high-end shoes and streetwear.
Peter Thiel might be getting out of Silicon Valley
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Peter Thiel -- billionaire, investor and Gawker-killer -- might be cutting many of his ties with Silicon Valley. The paper spoke to sources it says are familiar with Thiel and his plans and they said that the shift is largely due to the Bay Area's left-leaning politics and what Thiel sees as its intolerance for conservative views. Supposedly, he's considering leaving Facebook's board and plans to move to Los Angeles. Thiel Capital and Thiel Foundation, companies that manage his investments, may also be relocated to LA.
eBay will soon replace PayPal as its main payment option
eBay and PayPal remained tight even after the two headed to splitsville in 2015. That's bound to change in the near future now that the auction site has decided to offer an integrated payment system built by Amsterdam-based company Adyen. The move will give way to a more seamless payment experience -- no need to log into another website to pay -- since Adyen's product (already used by Netflix and Uber) is purely a back-end payment service.
Venmo's 25-cent instant transfers are now available for everyone
Payment sharing services from Paypal, Square and Venmo are great, but it can take some time to move funds from those accounts to your bank so you can use them in real life. Last year, Paypal introduced $0.25 instant transfer fees to make it much faster to move money to your real-life bank. Now Paypal-owned Venmo is doing the same, offering transfers of funds in less than 30 minutes.
OnePlus halts credit card payments on its site after fraud reports
This weekend, reports began to surface that some people who had made purchases on OnePlus' website were seeing unauthorized transactions pop up on their credit cards. OnePlus released a statement on its website saying that it was looking into the issue and today in an update, the company said it's shutting down credit card payments on its site. "This is a serious issue and we are investigating around the clock. As a precaution, we are temporarily disabling credit card payments at oneplus.net," it said. "PayPal is still available, and we are exploring alternative secure payment options with our service providers."