{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://auchincloss.house.gov/media/press-releases/release-auchincloss-leads-democrats-letter-stop-vaccine-disinformation-profits", "RELEASE: \u00a0Auchincloss Leads Democrats in Letter to Stop Vaccine Disinformation Profits", "2021-12-15", "2021", "2021-12", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Jake Auchincloss", "A000148", "auchincloss.house.gov", "auchincloss", "https://auchincloss.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Auchincloss Leads Democrats in Letter to Stop Vaccine Disinformation Profits\n\nLetter urges PayPal to ban users who disseminate vaccine disinformation\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Today, Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D, MA-04) led other Democratic members in a letter to PayPal urging the corporation to ban the use of its online payment system on websites that perpetuate COVID-19 vaccine and treatment disinformation. Specifically, the letter calls on PayPal to deactivate the accounts of the \u201cDisinformation Dozen.\u201d\n\nIn the letter Congressman Auchincloss states, \u201cWe write to express concern about PayPal\u2019s role in the spread of COVID-19 disinformation. As you know, more than 800,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. The majority of these deaths have come after the approval of safe, free, and effective vaccines. Throughout this pandemic, it is our opinion that your company has played a role in financing vaccine disinformation spreaders. We believe PayPal should consider banning the use of its online payments system on websites that perpetuate dangerous lies about COVID-19 treatment and immunization.\u201d\n\nA full copy of the letter can be found below.\n\nDan Schulman\n\nPresident and CEO, PayPal\n\n2211 N 1st St\n\nSan Jose, CA 95131\n\nDear Mr. Schulman,\n\nWe write to express concern about PayPal\u2019s role in the spread of COVID-19 disinformation. As you know, more than 800,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. The majority of these deaths have come after the approval of safe, free, and effective vaccines. Throughout this pandemic, it is our opinion that your company has played a role in financing vaccine disinformation spreaders. We believe PayPal should consider banning the use of its online payments system on websites that perpetuate dangerous lies about COVID-19 treatment and immunization.\n\nPresident Biden has called upon social media platforms to take responsibility for any role they play in the spread of disinformation. The Center for Countering Digital Hate published its Disinformation Dozen report that cites the websites of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) (Barbara Loe Fisher, Joseph Mercola), Organic Consumers Association (OCA) (Joseph Mercola), and the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) (Del Bigtree) as leading contributors to COVID-19 disinformation. As of this writing, all of these websites process donations to their organizations through PayPal, as well as major credit cards. While PayPal is not the sole payment system for these websites and individuals, we believe the platforms would have fewer available funding mechanisms without access to PayPal technology to process donations.\n\nThese websites promote recommendations that nonpartisan public health institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have stated could result in severe disease and death. One Mercola article claimed that hydrogen peroxide\u2014which the CDC says can cause gastrointestinal embolism and respiratory paralysis if ingested\u2014can \u201csuccessfully treat most viral respiratory illnesses, including coronavirus.\u201d This article was shared on Facebook thousands of times. Moreover, ICAN and the NVIC have claimed the virus is a hoax and that the vaccines are deadlier than the disease itself. For reference, the CDC has yet to detect any patterns for deaths following immunization. We are concerned that PayPal funds this disinformation by providing a means by which the owners of these platforms can collect payments.\n\nPayPal and other leading financial technology companies have already banned payments to entities that spread disinformation. After the deadly insurrection on January 6, Stripe ceased processing donations to the Trump Campaign. PayPal deactivated the accounts of some groups that were coordinating payments to support the rioters\u2019 actions on Capitol Hill. We believe that PayPal\u2019s deactivation of the accounts of the \u201cDisinformation Dozen\u201d would not be an attempt to curb free speech, but rather a decision consistent with the company\u2019s previous actions to protect public safety.\n\nWe appreciate your full and fair consideration of our concerns.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://auchincloss.house.gov/media/press-releases/release-auchincloss-leads-democrats-letter-stop-vaccine-disinformation-profits"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.7642683126032352, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}