LAUGH KNOWLEDGEABLY AT OUR ENEMY.
THE DEVIL AND HIS BROOD HATE TO BE MOCKED.
Thursday, 16 May 2024
Hello all,
It is with great
sadness that I share with you the passing of our beloved sister, Mother, and
Grandmother, the individual that you all knew as Noor. This community meant a great
deal to her, and she cherished the interactions with her reader over the
years.
She had a
brief and spirited fight during her hospitalization but succumbed to illness on
May 10th, 2024. We will leave her
writings up for you all. We are asking for privacy in this difficult time for
us as a family, and will be providing no further updates or communication.
On
October 30 I received an email from Stripe, Substack’s only payment
processor, announcing that I had been canceled due to “risk tolerance as
determined by a number of factors.” After much back-and-forth with both
Stripe and Substack (see screenshots below) it became clear that there
was no recourse. Stripe can cancel you because its CEO is a rabid genocide supporter, and Substack doesn’t care enough to do anything about it.
We need to boycott Stripe.
That means canceling all paid Substack subscriptions. (Don’t worry,
your payments to this one have already been automatically canceled!
Please do NOT initiate chargebacks, that will just make my situation
worse!)
Be sure to write to Substack
and the writers explaining why you have canceled all your paid
subscriptions, and assuring them that you will re-subscribe and then
some as soon as there is an alternative to genocidal, pro-censorship
Stripe. Once the normally pro-free-speech Substack gets the message, it
will do the right thing and find another payment processor.
Meanwhile…I
was living primarily on $2500 per month in Substack subscriptions. That
is now gone, and Stripe refuses to pay the $7,786.03 they admit they
owe me. See screenshots below.
So now I need to raise $2500 per month to replace my lost Substack donations. But how?
Around the beginning of each month I will announce a new Spot.Fund donation page for that month.
Hello,
I received a notice that Stripe cannot process transactions on my
account. I thought it might be a temporary situation or an error, so I
waited three weeks, but my transactions are still paused. I
have been using Stripe for more than a decade without problems and
would like to resolve this issue. I would be happy to work with you in
whatever way is most effective.
Firstly,
we really appreciate your eagerness to continue working with us.
However, we are required to follow strict guidelines on the types of
businesses we can and can't support.
In this case,
after a thorough review of your account, it does seem like your business
presents a higher level of risk than we can currently support.
Because of this we’ve determined that we still won’t be able to accept payments for your business moving forward. We’re sorry we can’t be of more help, but these restrictions are firm.
There
seems to be a misunderstanding. You claim that I have a business. I do
not have a business. My Stripe account is only used for accepting gifts.
I am a writer. My patrons offer voluntary gifts through Substack: www.KevinBarrett.substack.com Patrons are informed in advance that they will not get anything in return for their gifts.
What kind of “risk” can there be when a writer simply accepts donations from patrons who want to support that writer?
Thanks
for reaching out. I understand your concern regarding the decision on
your account. Allow me to provide clarity and explain further.
We
are unable to provide any further details regarding the reason for your
account's closure. We do have to impose strict limits on the accounts
that we can and can't support and we're unable to work with any account
that we believe possesses risk tolerance as determined by several
factors, or violates our own policies. In this case, after a thorough
review of your account, we have determined that your account falls
within these guidelines. Therefore, we are unable to reverse our
decision.
I apologize that we weren't able to offer you a better
experience, and wish you the best of luck with your business.We truly
hope you find a payment service provider that is just right for you.
Don't hesitate to let us know if there is any way that we can help with
your transition, such as moving your data over.
For more information on our Stripe Service Agreement, please visit the link below:
If you have any questions, please let us know and we'll be happy to help.
Regards,
Daniel
--------------- Original Message --------------- From: Kevin Barrett [truthjihad@gmail.com] Sent: 11/22/2024, 12:23 AM To:support@stripe.com Subject: Re: Your recent question for Stripe
Hello Daniel,
You
write, "Don't hesitate to let us know if there is any way that we can
help with your transition, such as moving your data over.” Please do
send me all of my account data including all information you have about
my donors.
I also absolutely need to see the specific reason(s) for which my account “possesses risk tolerance” (sic).
Kevin Barrett
On Nov 22, 2024, at 11:11 AM, Stripe Support <support@stripe.com> wrote:
Hi Kevin,
Thanks
for keeping in touch. I understand that you have further requests
regarding the data of your donors and further queries about the
rejection of your account. Let me provide you with further details.
I
double check your request here to get the data of your donors.
Unfortunately, with the current status of your account, we're unable to
complete this request. Our team has reviewed your Stripe account and has
determined that we are not comfortable with the level of risk presented
by completing this data request.
Rest assured that
while I can't discuss the specifics of Stripe processes and the
rejection of your account due to our privacy policy, all accounts are
reviewed according to our Services Agreement.
I apologize that we weren't able to offer you a better experience, and wish you the best of luck with your business.
Regards, Daniel
Hello Daniel,
You
write "all accounts are reviewed according to our Services Agreement.” I
have read Stripe’s Sevices Agreement and am sure that any impartial
legal review team will find that I did not violate any of its terms. If
Stripe’s “team” thinks I violated one or more terms of the agreement,
obviously it must inform me which terms it erroneously claims I
violated.
Kevin
[[[no reply]]]
___
My email exchange with Substack
Hi Jim,
Stripe
has apparently canceled me, without giving a reason. I assume it’s
politically motivated and probably relates to my outspokenly
pro-Palestine anti-Zionist writings. (I’m an ex-academician https://news.wisc.edu/archive/barrettissue/ turned dissident.)
Stripe’s
pro-censorship orientation is interfering with Substack’s mission. I am
in contact with other writers who have experienced similar problems,
and will be writing about the issue. I would love to interview Chris
Best or another appropriate Substack exec about this and related topics.
And of course I would appreciate any steps Substack may take to solve
this problem.
Sincerely
Kevin Barrett
PS Attached and
below are relevant screenshots and emails. Note that Stripe was supposed
to pay me $7871 on Nov. 5 but keeps rolling back the payout date.
-
Hi Kevin, Thank
you for reaching out. I’m sorry to hear about the deactivation of your
Stripe account. Since Stripe accounts are owned and managed directly by
publishers, Substack doesn’t have insight into the reasons for account
restrictions or the ability to intervene in Stripe’s decisions. If you
choose to dispute the payment pause with Stripe, we can provide you with
relevant documentation they may need or request to support your case. While
we work to make Substack a platform for free expression, we’re
currently unable to support payment processors other than Stripe. That
said, I’ve shared your feedback with our product team for consideration
as we continue to improve our platform. If there’s anything else I can assist you with, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Best regards,
Jim @ Substack
-
Thank you, Jim.
Any
chance I could get a quote from someone representing Substack deploring
Stripe’s debanking writers whose politics they disagree with?
If you’re not going to fix the problem, the least you could do is deplore it ; - )
Best
Kevin
--
Screenshots: Stripe Cancels 80% of my Income and Steals $7781.03 From Donors
