Big tech has too much power to cut off users without recourse.
I had two thoughts when I learned that PayPal dropped Epik from its services a couple of weeks ago.
My first reaction was, “It sucks that this happened.”
My second reaction was, “What an utterly bizarre way that Epik responded to the issue.”
It’s a shame that the bizarre response got in the way of a notable issue: the power that big tech companies have over their users. They make a decision and cut off users, often without any sort of warning or appeal mechanism.
When a business has little choice with who to work with due to the service providers’ network effects, it leaves little recourse to the small businesses out there. This is true for dominant payment networks and ad platforms.
Domain name sales database NameBio was cut off from PayPal today. It asked PayPal for an explanation and got a very simple and direct response. (Funny how that works.) Basically, PayPal had associated some of the domains listed for sale on NameBio with their prior use for file sharing and assumed NameBio was associated with file sharing sites. NameBio has appealed and is at the mercy of someone at PayPal to decide its fate.
It doesn’t sound like it will be a huge deal if PayPal says no. It would suck, but the good news is NameBio uses Stripe for recurring subscriptions.
Still, it is disappointing that the company severed its relationship in what was clearly an error.
I’ve experienced this twice with Facebook advertising. I’m not a big advertiser and spend about $1,000 a month on the platform. In 2018, I received a notice that I could no longer advertise because “We don’t support ads for your business model.”
This is not a good explanation.
My appeal was rejected without further explanation.
While my $1,000 a month isn’t much to Facebook, the business I was getting from Facebook was substantial to me. Losing Facebook upended my business model.
I had to use my own connections to get reinstated. That’s not how things should work.
About a month ago, my ad account was again suspended for “suspicious activity.” Facebook didn’t email me to let me know. I found out when I tried to boost a post.
Facebook reinstated my ad account about five days after I submitted a copy of my photo ID.
Low-paid people in review departments likely make many of these initial decisions.
Business Insider published a story last week about Google closing peoples’ accounts. Imagine if you used Google’s platform for email, calendar, files, etc. and you are locked out!
The biggest issue I have is when companies don’t give an explanation.
To be sure, there are times in which companies need to be coy about why they suspended an account. Companies don’t want to give away a trigger that they use to locate fraud and bad actors. I understand why Google might not want to tell someone why their Adsense account was suspended if it means bad actors can find a way around the filters.
But this situation is rare.
As long as the federal government is going after big tech for monopolistic practices, I hope they pressure these companies to give reasonable protection to their users.
Thank you Andrew for the reveal here and the sentiments towards small business. What may have looked bizarre on the surface, I believe will one day look very different to you. In total, PayPal had more than 185 reporting points that joined in for damage control, and their media gate was very difficult to penetrate. This is truly a David versus Goliath story, and touches the very fabric for the intentions some have to control information beyond any scope most would ever want to imagine. The concept of “horrific abuse” doesn’t begin to cut it, the lives they have tried to destroy are very real, and I have faith that one day individuals will look back at Epik in a completely different light that is favorable to paint in current times.
I would share with you:
https://www.epik.com/blog/mashable
https://www.epik.com/blog/fakenews
https://www.epik.com/blog/splc
The means may be unconventional, but the freedom at stake is worth it. I would also share a few pieces to highlight exactly where Epik stands in the fight against racism and hatred.
https://www.epik.com/blog/racism
If you can find others with more passion in their pursuits, let me know. We’re hiring.
Have a blessed and mighty day.
I agree overall. That said, in my over 20 years in the Internet space, I have not heard or seen ONE person/company that was suspended by PayPal/Stripe/Parking Companies etc admit that they did anything wrong. It was always the big bad company picking on the innocent little guy doing absolutly nothing wrong. Just saying…
Fair point. There are certainly companies that violate the TOS. While I don’t know first hand what happened in Epik’s case, I think it’s clear that they wrongly terminated NameBio.
Hear hear!
If the market were genuinely competitive – i.e. with several viable competitors to Paypal or to FaceBook or to Google – then it wouldn’t be such a problem if 1 of these tech giants were to suddenly ban someone without explanation or recourse. Fine! As a result, the consumer would just go to a rival company more responsive to consumers’ needs. Leaking customers in that way would be bad for business; and so the opaque policy would be sooner or later be re-examined.
In a competitive economy, these issues are self-correcting. Which is why we get good customer support from companies, large and small, that are doing business in competitive sectors (like restaurants and banks) and virtually NONE from the tech giants.
Whatever caused Epik to get banned from PayPal (and I don’t know what that was), it’s telling that Epik (a far smaller company) has generally provided its problem customers with personalized feedback regarding why they get suspended or banned. I dealt with that personally between 2017 and 2019. So if a small company can afford to communicate directly even with its WORST customers, why can’t a big company like PayPal or FaceBook do the same?
Andrew, I am nonpartisan, neither Democrat nor Republican, liberal nor conservative, left nor right; some of the above, all of the above, none of the above – and some besides and in between. I’m even a veteran brief resident of the house of Uncle Sam. Truth – above, beyond and beside politics and ideology. And Robert is right. In fact he is more right than many even realize, because a huge part of what has been going on in this country does not even get the attention other aspects of it do.
“[…] touches the very fabric for the intentions some have to control information beyond any scope most would ever want to imagine.”
Andrew I highly recommend you and others read this 2018 piece by Caitlin Johnstone. Like all of us, she is flawed, imperfect and not infallible, and this does not mean I endorse everything she ever says, but that said she is one of the best truth tellers and “real journalists” out there doing amazing valuable work:
“In A Corporatist System Of Government, Corporate Censorship Is State Censorship”
https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/in-a-corporatist-system-of-government-corporate-censorship-is-state-censorship-eb8a8b486577