And the PayPal payment system blocked the account through which Trump supporters raised funds.
The Shopify platform was one of the companies responding to the political turmoil in Washington on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Two official online stores that sold Trump-branded merchandise (both personal brand and political campaign), including the famous red caps with the inscription MAGA were blocked the very next day after the events.
The reason for this step was that the president's actions are contrary to the company's policy, which provides for a ban on the promotion of violence. In particular, the platform prohibits e-commerce representatives from promoting and supporting organizations or people that promote violence. And since Trump’s messages on social networks were regarded as such, the stores associated with him were blocked (previously, the president’s accounts in Twitter и Facebook also blocked).
This is a big enough move for an e-commerce platform that previously had a policy to protect any user's rights to use Shopify. Representatives of the platform, in particular its CEO Tobias Lutke, even talked about possible blocking of accounts as censorship. However, in recent years the policy has begun to change. So, already in 2018, a number of far-right groups received a ban on the use of Shopify, including stores associated with the Proud Boys organization (which was involved in the riots in the Capitol) were blocked. PayPal payment system. An account was blocked, on which funds were collected for the protesters, including those later spent on the road to Washington.
Photo depositphotos.com.