What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies

by Tim Urban

In October of 2022, PayPal announced an impending policy change that would deduct $2,500 from the accounts of users who sent, posted, or published material that “depict, promote, or incite hatred or discrimination of protected groups or of individuals or groups based on protected characteristics (e.g., race, religion, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.)” or those who “promote misinformation.” David Marcus, former PayPal president, criticized the policy, tweeting: “A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity.” Liberals around the world recoil when they hear stories about China’s “social credit score,”⬥ which is said to blacklist people who aren’t deemed to be “trustworthy citizens.” Blacklisted people, unable to buy train tickets, buy a house, or do a large number of other basic things, are essentially banned from society. Tech companies, with the ability to block people from reaching their followers, selling their books, marketing their restaurants, or accepting payments for their business, have the same kind of blacklist power. America doesn’t have a social credit score—but these are stories of people effectively being blacklisted.