What if you woke up tomorrow and completely lost access to your bank account, credit cards, PayPal, and Venmo, all because of something you posted online?
What if you woke up tomorrow and completely lost access to your bank account, credit cards, PayPal, and Venmo, all because of something you posted online?
44 Comments
deliriousdreams@fedia.io · 37 pts · 76d
Class action lawsuit. Their terms and conditions when I opened my accounts did not mention this and further, updating those terms and conditions and then closing my accounts is not justifiable. Since I'm likely not the only one they will do this to, it sounds to me like they need to learn a lesson.
My online campaign to point out every time one of their executives has said anything sus would be legendary.
Rhaedas@fedia.io · 8 pts · 76d
If things were shut down to prevent access to anything, I don't think legal action is possible, or even the path to take. Probably why it would never be done that quickly or drastically. The art of oppression is knowing the limit of what people will put up with and not crossing the line, but moving the line slowly. Go too fast, the commons get upset and find their torches.
roserose56@lemmy.zip · 22 pts · 76d
For the USA and the rest of the world, Brazil has its own payment system as far as I know, and Europe is making one already, so jokes on you. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Amberskin@europe.pub · 3 pts · 75d
We have several, but are mostly country level. We are working on interconnecting them so payments and money can flow along the EU without any USA dependency.
And there is also the digital Euro for small payments, that is being also being developed right now.
International bank transfers and direct debit are already in place via the SEPA instruments.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 75d
You're Rose. It says so right before the @
Chozo@fedia.io · 22 pts · 76d
Visa is already censoring the world's porn. As if we needed more reason to hate them.
TotalCourage007@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 76d
not just porn they are inserting themselves into every entertainment industry. all based on being control freaks. If you look at who visa vocally supports its a crazy rabbit hole.
remon@ani.social · 21 pts · 76d
Pretty sure having a bank account is like an EU right, so banks can't just close your account willy-nilly over some online post.
stoy@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 76d
Yes, but VISA would hold the keys to the infrastructure that let's you use it in in a modern world.
remon@ani.social · 6 pts · 76d
Except for maybe international online payments, there are already alternatives, so I don't quite see how.
onlinepersona@programming.dev · 4 pts · 76d
WERO might be the EU alternative.
IceFoxX@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 76d
IceFoxX@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 75d
IceFoxX@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 76d
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 74d
Imagine a country like Hungary decides to freeze another's entire population bank account
sukhmel@programming.dev · 4 pts · 76d
Most likely it is an EU right, but violations would require a lot of effort to straighten, so I wouldn't be surrised if they do sometimes close accounts willy-nilly
Auster@thebrainbin.org · 14 pts · 76d
Without having watched the video, but having an idea of what it's about given seeing a few places and creators I follow being sanctioned because the payment processors getting butthurt, I think it's worth mentioning crypto and direct competitors to the Visa and Mastercard mono(duo?)poly.
On crypto, if issue is that it burns too much energy, afaik generally new technologies are like that, improvements to consumption happening over time.
And about direct competitors, Russia made one from what I read, Brazil has Elo, and I think the EU was introducing their own recently. All 3 countries/country-like territories with their own problems, but I think it's a worth idea to copy and improve upon.
Also fomenting use of physical cash is a good idea too, me thinks.
toebert@piefed.social · 5 pts · 76d
Fwiw, there are already some cryptos which use proof-of-stake instead of proof-of-work which overcomes the entire electricity consumption thing.
I do wish that places started accepting cryptos which were meant to be used for transactions (e.g. NANO) rather than ones like bitcoin that just happen to have existed for a while, but is technically inferior to most everything else.
Unfortunately, crypto in general challenges not just payment processors but the entire banking industry, and that's probably too much to ever succeed.
Auster@thebrainbin.org · 3 pts · 76d
Interesting!
About challenging the industry, I remember reading some years ago that Visa/MC enforced higher taxes on the companies that also accepted crypto. If that is/still is a thing, might give a hint of why it isn't more widely accepted.
toebert@piefed.social · 3 pts · 75d
Yeah, it's probably part of it! Banks are even more obvious about it. E.g. in the UK where crypto is a taxed and somewhat regulated thing, most of the banks have taken the stance of rejecting any payments to and from(!) exchanges, even if they're approved by the government. All because it's "high risk so they want to protect users". No such issue with gambling though, obviously.
Colloidal@programming.dev · 4 pts · 76d
I think you're confusing Elo (just a local company) with Pix, a government created interbank payment system. And from what I know of Pix, yes, we should all definitely copy that.
Auster@thebrainbin.org · 1 pts · 76d
Elo the "bandeira" (forgot the name), similar to Visa and Mastercard. But about Pix, now that you mention it, I think PayPal does too? Although not in some countries.
Zeh_oniam@lemmy.eco.br · 1 pts · 76d
Pix has no taxing whatsoever in direct transactions. The only reason people still use cards is due to habit.
Banks also offer parceling payment, but each one does that on it's own way afaik. I never used it. Not leaving payments for the future is a load of my mind tbh.
IceFoxX@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 76d
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 75d
Lol wut.
Most banks in Germany charge you for taking cash out of your own account. It's one of the most difficult countries to use cash without getting fined for using cash
IceFoxX@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 75d
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 75d
Also ATMs have max withdrawals. And if you want to take a larger amount from a human at the window, there's a fee for that too.
IceFoxX@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 75d
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 75d
AML laws don't limit cash limits on atm machines.
There's literally zero legal risk of money laundering with cash that comes out of an ATM. It's already coming from a trusted source (the bank).
AML risk is when you deposit large sums of cash into a bank
IceFoxX@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 75d
Doomsider@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 74d
It has been happening for a long time now. Say something the government doesn't like and suddenly your bank and credit cards stop working.
This is done through a perverse private/public partnership where the US government will give a vague instruction to deplatform an individual or group and a private company will voluntarily enact this de facto ban.
The government then gets to claim they are not banning anyone and the private company can say they reserve the right not to do business with anyone.
Hell it used to be common to not even allow women or blacks access to banking.
https://kindredfutures.org/trapped-by-design-background/
dismay3915@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 76d
Time for more monero
bitfucker@programming.dev · 7 pts · 75d
Asia has a very unique financial system in this sense. They are not reliant on 3rd party payment processors that can be counted on one hand, and they usually support P2P payment between banks. They also usually prefer to use QR than NFC (like on wechat, line, and kakao). This is one example standard that I found from Indonesia called QRIS, and they are expanding it wherever they can. Of course Visa is upset about those lol (see the section about US Government response)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QRIS
razen@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 75d
Yeah UPI is great too in India.
Clutter@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 76d
This is why I liked the idea of Bitcoin in the beginning. (Before it became what it is now).
I still like Monero. It would make shit like this impossible to touch by authoritarian idiots.
onlinepersona@programming.dev · 6 pts · 76d
The vocal fry made that video unwatchable, jfk. I think the video is about financial censorship. They have been warning about this for more than a decade now, but most recently Trump issued an executive order to force payment providers to keep customers despite religious or political beliefs (article by yahoo finance).
vanillama@programming.dev · 1 pts · 75d
Conversely, there are people whose accounts have been frozen either by the US or the EU for political motivations
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 5 pts · 75d
Link to article?
Maeve@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 75d
It's there. More crossplatform issues. https://youtu.be/tyqEYDisiZA
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 75d
Link to article?
binux@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 75d
Are you being intentionally dense? There's no article, only video.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 75d
They are clearly implying that they don't want a video, they want an article. I also would, but since there isn't one I'm just hear for the comments.
binux@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 75d
Yeah, they're also implying that it's on the commenter for not understanding that, despite them only trying to be helpful. It's just petty and pedantic completely needlessly.
quick_snail@feddit.nl · -4 pts · 75d
Then there's no information, only misinformation
cardfire@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 74d
It's weird how hostile we are to reading, and how malleable we are to video.
I'm the same way about expecting people to cite real sources; incidentally, I caught a bunch of flak last week on Lemmy for asking for literally any other source than one self-aggrandizing vlogger.
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 74d
We are not. But some people are, apparently
Aneorthisio@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 75d
Remember that there exist alternatives to the big three US payment processors.
China's UnionPay is pretty much global now, one can open a bank account remotely in Hong Kong or Singapore and go through UnionPay.
Russia's Mir is the answer to the current geopolitical situation and the country being cut off from SWIFT, they are backed by UnionPay and are accepted all over Asia, Africa and increasingly in Latin America, many local banks in these parts will give you a card with Mir if you request it.
India's UPI is also gaining traction in the subcontinent, in Europe Wero is rolling out as an answer to US dependency.
You don't have to be a prisoner to the three American processors, even in the US and Canada, UnionPay is gaining traction as a result of the demand from the Chinese diaspora and business owners.
Competition is good for business.
Edit : typo car -> card
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 74d
Good thing I deleted PayPal as soon as I heard of this. They can't do shit to me.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 4 pts · 76d
I know this is off topic but the cc companies are going crazy from a state law that passed saying how oh it will be so bad because they just won't be able to handle it at all and will have to pull out or something. eff em.
AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · 2 pts · 76d
Has*
leds@feddit.dk · -4 pts · 76d
Yes if you "woke" up too much you will be censured
Edit: seems misunderstood , it is a bad thing that anything considered too woke is being censored