Financial privacy is a right under the Constitution, as is free speech.

Under the guise of “credit review,” Stripe is now rolling out a requirement that appears to target conservative or “anti-vax” Substack authors. Stripe is requiring that these authors provide all of their current and historic financial records associated with the bank account into which Stripe deposits Substack subscriber payments (after taking 10% off the top for Substack and 3% for Stripe). Stripe already has information concerning this bank account (including deposits from Stripe), as we have been doing business with Stripe via this account for over two years.

If I or anyone else agree to these new terms, this newly implemented arbitrary, capricious and overreaching requirement will provide Stripe with complete records of all financial transactions associated with this account. Consequently, this will provide Stripe with comprehensive information on all of my customers, patients, and clients, all of my travel (historic and planned), all of my purchases, and any donations (and donor information).

This information from my account and those of any others who comply with this demand can be hacked or sold, provided to the US Government, used to fuel predictive algorithms (AI), used to derive insights into my political orientation, weaponized against me by press or other hostile actors, or used to support future social credit score-based restrictions.

Stripe has a history of financially deplatforming (or debanking) for political reasons, including removing support for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Despite its relatively recent entry into the financial transaction business, Stripe has become a major global financial organization, and processed one $1 trillion in payments during 2023, and is now expanding its credit charge program. …

This action by Substack and its contractor Stripe appears to be yet another incremental step towards implementing further weaponization of financial transactions to control and constrain freedom of speech, and to further a financial social credit system-based system of controls. Once again, despite the financial risks, I have chosen to take a firm stand against this new arbitrary and capricious overreaching policy. This will require significant legal expenses, and will place my relationship with Substack corporation at risk despite my almost complete financial dependency on this platform.

It appears that a similar debanking strategy was already deployed against the “Libs of TikTok” by Stripe. In this case, the revenue stream was associated with an “X” account, and rumor has it that direct action by Elon Musk has resulted in Stripe backing down.

I have been contacted by other Substack authors who are being targeted in the same way, and invite all who receive these threat letters to contact me. I will be glad to put you in contact with Mr. Mark Meuser, who has already completed significant due diligence regarding this matter. I can provide copies of relevant correspondence received from Stripe and Substack to credentialed reporters who may wish to investigate further.