A community newspaper's payment to enter a feel-good story about a family of Syrian refugees in an awards competition prompted PayPal to freeze the account of a national media organization after flagging the suspicious transaction, The Canadian Press has learned.
The action by the U.S.-based Internet giant sparked dismay, anxiety and raised questions about Canadian autonomy.
"It's quite scary about how insidious the security agenda has become," said John Hinds, CEO of News Media Canada. "The demonization and racial profiling, that's really scary, too."
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"As there were some transactions related to the word 'Syria,' our teams are required to check some details as per our obligations to comply with financial regulations," a PayPal Canada spokeswoman said in an email.
"We never want to get in the way of people's desire to do good (but) the U.S. Department of Treasury has clear regulations about payments to Syria."
Still, Hinds said he was nonplussed by the "extraterritoriality" of what had happened.
"Since when did the U.S. government start regulating Canadian media?" Hinds said. "It's pretty clear that our account is a newspaper account. It's not like we're Hamas Inc."
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/manitoba/paypal-freezes-flin-flon-newspaper-syrian-refugees-1.3977292