PayPal shuts down gay groups' accounts

E-commerce giant PayPal has shut down the online donation accounts of at least two gay rights groups in a fortnight.

Inmedia and the Hong Kong Lesbian Community said their accounts had been suspended and their funds frozen. Inmedia said the US$4,500 in its account had been frozen, but the lesbian group did not give a figure.

They suspected the controversial nature of their work was behind PayPal's action. Both groups have been at loggerheads with the local conservative Christian community.

In its notification to the two activist groups, PayPal said it was unable to process online payments for unregistered charities and non-profit organisations because of regulatory restrictions.

These include unregistered political parties, religious institutions as well as personal and organisational fund-raisers.

But both the Lesbian Community, which runs the Blur-F website, and Inmedia, which is also an online news platform for citizen journalists, are registered under the city's Societies Ordinance.

In a written reply to the South China Morning Post, PayPal confirmed it had terminated Inmedia's account but did not explain why. The company said it had advised Inmedia to resubmit certain documents if it wanted the account reactivated. The statement did not mention the Lesbian Community.

PayPal's online payment service is popular with many non-government organisations and activists for receiving overseas donations.

The League of Social Democrats, an activist group with three seats in Legco, which is highly critical of the government, said its PayPal account was still active.

Feng Zhenghu , a dissident blogger from Shanghai who made international headlines when he spent three months in exile from the mainland camped out at Tokyo's Narita International Airport - has been receiving donations through PayPal since his return to the mainland in February.

Inmedia founder Lam Oi-wan suspected PayPal was deliberately targeting gay groups in Hong Kong.

'Our account has been operating since 2005,' she said.

'It makes no sense [PayPal] suddenly realises its rules don't allow us to receive donations so it has to shut down our account now. Since a lesbian group has had a similar experience, we believe it is related to our critical stance against conservative Christian groups.'

Cho Man-kit of the Hong Kong Ten Percent Club, a gay group, said its account was also abruptly shut down by PayPal early this year. However, the group was able to open another donation account on PayPal by listing as an educational organisation rather than a charity.

Charles Mok, chairman of the Internet Society Hong Kong, said large multinational technology companies could simply cancel service to users without being held accountable for their actions.

'Only PayPal knows why it suddenly shut down the two groups' accounts,' he said, referring to its decision on Inmedia and the Lesbian Community.

'Their lack of transparency has created many problems.'

He said governments and other watchdogs were increasingly alert to the problem and had been pressing for greater transparency and co-operation from such companies.