On Monday evening, Sabo, the conservative street artist who is mostly known for his street posters that randomly pop up in California, reported on his Facebook page that he has now been kicked off of PayPal. “Today Paypal canceled my account with all of my money in it,” he announced. “They are holding my funds for the next 6 months.”
PayPal is the money exchanging platform Sabo used to earn income, and this de-platforming hits him hard financially. “I explained to them that I live in a city with 60,000 homeless people and that they are about to make me and my wife join their ranks.”
Last year, Sabo was also de-platformed from Twitter without being given a reason. He gave an exclusive interview to PJMedia’s Megan Fox when it happened.
Sabo posted the following image with his announcement about PayPal.
“My wife had warned me about doing business with PayPal,” the artist told PJM. “I’d constantly tell her that they provided a great service which makes starting an online store easy.”
“I trusted them,” he explained. “I worked in the start-ups for many years and it sucks to see what they’ve become. The people of PayPal obviously haven’t taken note of how many once-giants are less than memories now. Their time will come soon as well. When it comes to the transfer of money, trust is paramount.”
“They’ve lost that trust with me,” he added. “We are living in Orwellian times.”
Sabo insists in his Facebook post that he will keep fighting to be able to earn a living. “We’ll find an alternative way to generate income and I’m sure they will work to hit that as well. And then we’ll find another.” He also said he expected this would happen. “2020 is right around the corner and they are doing everything they can to silence our side. At least they finally did it so now I can move on.”
UPDATE: Sabo has informed PJ Media that he’s spoken with PayPal’s customer support. “The last time I called them I reminded them that I’ve been a good customer for many years and that there are no cases pending on my account,” he said. When he asked why he was de-platformed, they refused to tell him. Sabo believes that due to the publicity PayPal has received from this story they decided to allow him to withdraw his funds. With help from customer service, he was able to initiate a transfer of his entire PayPal account to his bank.
Sabo has made his “PayPal Forbidden” poster available on Etsy in the hopes that he can recover the losses he’s suffered from his online store being shut down.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
This article was updated to include a comment and image from Sabo.
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