PayPal Blocks Website That Helped Send Protesters to Capitol

(Bloomberg) -- PayPal Holdings Inc. blocked the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo after it helped raise funds for people who attended last week’s violent event in Washington, D.C., according to a person familiar with the matter.

The payments giant also closed an account held by Ali Alexander, one of the organizers of the gathering, the person said, asking not to be named discussing non-public information.

“We regularly assess activity against our acceptable-use policy and carefully review actions reported to us, and will discontinue our relationship with account holders who are found to violate our policies,” PayPal said in a statement on Monday.

Bloomberg previously reported that PayPal closed an account held by Joy In Liberty. It was among groups that paid for supporters of President Donald Trump to travel to Washington, where mobs stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, breaking through police lines and forcing lawmakers into hiding.

Some of PayPal’s rivals have also begun reassessing doing business with companies linked to Trump. Shopify Inc. shut down online stores affiliated with him.

“PayPal has a longstanding, well-defined and consistently enforced acceptable use policy,” the company said in Monday’s statement. “Regardless of the individual or organization in question, we work to ensure that our services are not used to accept payments for activities that promote hate speech, violence or other forms of intolerance.”