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Been using Coinbase for over four years now, and glad to hear CEO Armstrong is actively resisting the woke crowd. While I may not agree with some of his personal views, at least he is intelligent enough to not mix his company with unrelated social activism.

Finally one tech company tells social justice warriors to take a hike-
[thefederalist.com]

Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong is taking a strong stance against woke corporatism by refusing to participate in certain social and political movements such as Black Lives Matter. Armstrong’s address comes in response to a recent employee walkout at the cryptocurrency company.

SpikeTalon 10 Oct 1
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I believe Coinbase deplatformed the free-speech social media site Gab and possibly others.

What tech companies these days totally refrain from deplatforming others, including even this site? Deplatformed isn't really the accurate term to use in my opinion, Coinbase refused to do any further business with GAB founder Andrew Torba most likely due to possible criminal connections Torba has, and he has been known to associate with those who openly encourage acts of violence. I got censored once on GAB, a post was denied for unknown reasons, so can't say I feel sorry for Torba when Coinbase decided to severe ties with him. If Torba had used any of his crypto assets to fund criminals or criminal organizations and they carried out crimes, Coinbase would have had legal problems most likely. Sounds like business to me.

@SpikeTalon "If Torba had used any of his crypto assets to fund criminals or criminal organizations and they carried out crimes, Coinbase would have had legal problems most likely."

I don't have a legal background nor the legal insight to add a really meaninful argument here, but, it reads to me like you're excusing the heinous practice for deplatforming. Should the communications company over whose network Torba uses be worried he sending hate comms? Should the US post office be opening his mail before agreeing to mail it in case they determine he's sending hate mail?

I do not mean to read snarky, but rather just fed up with all these judgements being weaponized to curb, not just one person' freedoms but everyone's, including the deplatformers eventually.

@NonAgrssvMight I have not seen any evidence or even any implication that Torba was involved in anything illegal. Baring such revelations and a statement by Coinbase to that effect, the most logical conclusion is that he was banned from Coinbase for the same reason he is banned by many other financial companies - namely he provide a free speech platform and will not exclude certain right-wing accounts.

@SpikeTalon For the record, Coinbase declined to do business with British commentator Milo Yiannopoulos in May of 2019. They also banned Wikileaks earlier in 2019. Here is an article. [cointelegraph.com]

@NonAgrssvMight What deplatforming? Sounds like business to me. A private organization is not obligated to provide services to those who may be or become a liability. The USPS is funded by taxpayer dollars, Coinbase is a private entity, so the two cannot be compared. Individual entities in this country have certain rights, and none of them should be forced to do business with someone that of which they don't want to for whatever reason. If you are upset/fed up with those that deplatform, you could always take your business to a competitor, and that's a benefit the free market system has to offer. When it comes to social media sites that deplatform, ever notice how those complaining about such don't really do anything constructive besides complaining, something constructive meaning maybe starting their own platform?

@Miner Coinbase is a private entity, and a private organization should not be compelled to do business with another that of which they don't want to for whatever reason. The free market system has competition, so if one organization denies you there is almost always a competitor, and that surely is the case for cryptocurrency wallets.

@Miner, @NonAgrssvMight Torba is no innocent by the way, and in reality GAB isn't any different than most other platforms for right-leaning individuals. Back in 2018 there was a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue and shortly before the shooting was carried out the shooter had posted to his GAB account to the extent that he was sick and tired of Jews invading the country and getting people killed, and that he was "going in". Torba didn't do a frickin thing about that post which was an obvious threat that was quickly acted upon. That shooting was back in 2018, Coinbase severed ties with Torba in early 2019, a coincidence? I think not...

@SpikeTalon I was taking exception to the particular claim you made regarding Coinbase's legal implications if Torba or anyone else used money to possibly fund suspected criminals or criminal activity. I don't think it is, or should be, if I am off base on the precise legalities, Coinbase's, or any other financial institutions' obligation to determine whether or not each monetary transaction could possibly be funding criminals or criminsl activity. For precisely the same reason social platforms are not, nor should they be held responsible for the posted content on their platform, unless of course they engage in active editorial practices akin to publishers.

@SpikeTalon Fail enough, Coinbase can do business with whom ever it wants to but it is not free from criticism and it would be disingenuous to claim to be neutral with regard to the woke culture.

@SpikeTalon Torba has no culpability in the Pittsburg shooting in the same way the Zuckerberg has no culpability for the New Zealand shooting as well as several others which were either announced or livestreamed on Facebook. The social media platforms can not be held responsible for posts which are legal within the scope of 1st Amendment criteria.

@Miner No individual or organization should ever be above criticism, I agree on that. I stated above in the original op that I may not agree with all of Armstrong's personal views, but at least he made some sort of public statement that he was not interested in mixing his company with social issues. That's more than what most other tech giants have done recently.

All social media platforms are obligated to follow all established laws, and in the US when someone issues a threat of violence law enforcement gets involved and rightly so. Torba should monitor his site better for illegal activity, which in that case such a post resulted in people getting murdered. Sorry, that's not covered under the 1st A. GAB is a joke, one of my posts on there had gotten denied and it wasn't even anything that controversial, and yet a clear threat from Mr Bowers went through, and he acted on his words. The Admin of this site in the past was forced to delete a few accounts due to posts promoting things that were illegal, and that goes for about every other site out there, they all have to go by the laws or face possible consequences for not doing so.

@SpikeTalon Thank you for your engagement on this important issue. While we may disagree on Gab, I do align with you thinking that at least Coinbase has made a reasonable public statement which is more than most companies have done. Looking forward to dialoging with you on other issues in the future.

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