Dick Masterson’s New Project 2 was basically the free speech advocate’s response to the Centrists™’ suggestion to “make your own payment platform!”. It was a payment service that would allow those who had been banned from Patreon, SubscribeStar, or any of the other Left-wing operated payment services to finally allow their fans, followers, and subscribers to pay directly into the coffers of the content creators they wanted to support. Unfortunately, due to the current monopoly held by a certain group of people, New Project 2 is shutting down after being blacklisted by MasterCard, as well as Chase and American Express.
The news was rolled out on June 27th, 2020 with a message by Masterson on his Twitter account where he broke the bad news to followers.
NP2 processing is down permanently. Thanks for the support, everyone. After 18 months, I can confidently say that Patreon, et al, must censor to survive. We’re all under the thumb of MasterCard and they’re likely in your wallet. pic.twitter.com/Uxm1VDgd2U
— LA Based Comedian (@LABasedComedian) June 27, 2020
If you’re unable to read the message in the tweet, it states…
“Bad news. I learned this week that New Project 2 is on the MATCH List. This is a global, credit card processing blacklist curated by MasterCard that all banks use to determine your processing eligibility. Some offshore banks will service customers on the MATCH List for all codes exception one, ’10: Violation of Standards’. Guess which one I’m on the list for.
“ The site cannot process credit cards. As current subscriptions run out, all membership levels will terminate and the site will go dormant. I will leave your admin logins up for three months so you can retrieve data and subscriber info. Payout requests made during this time will include the last settled transactions.
“I recommend logging into your backend, copying the list of your subscribers, and sending them an email to alert them of your plans (use BCC or MailChimp). If you’d like to set up a system similar to mine, S2Member and WordPress will get you there. SubscribeStar is also an option, but no matter where you go, you will be under the thumb of MasterCard.
“I started this project with the goal of making deplatforming transparent. In the last 18 months, I have learned that the deplatforming process is not transparent because our financial system is not transparent, and the censorship works in reverse. Each layer is built specifically to obfuscate what’s happening behind the scenes. Companies and banking partners are incentivized to censor proactively to abide by ill-defined requirements of the PATRIOT Act, left over policies of Operation Choke Point, and to protect staggering capital investments in credit card certification requirements of questionable necessity. They are held hostage. There is no consumer support and no warnings given. It’s guess work done in a blackbox. Banks partner with processing institutions who have relationships with larger banks who all exist in the world of MasterCard.
“I will post a bigger writeup about this experience on the site at NewProject2.com if you’re interested in the specifics. Otherwise, thank you for your investment in the project and your support. I had a lot of big ideas for the site, but I spent nearly all of my time trying to keep the processor afloat. The only thing that can fix this mess is the Federal Reserve and the blockchain, and they will, but not soon.”
Even blockchain may not be a solution, given that they can just axe any account that transfers or processes funds from or through the Fediverse, decentralized chains, or crypto-markets. That’s what happened to Proud Boys leader, Enrique Tarrio, after he was deplatformed by Chase.
SubscribeStar also isn’t a safe haven given that they’ve deplatformed people labeled as “Alt-Right”.
Any other businesses trying to stay afloat using normal payment processes are getting axed by those abusing remnants of Operation Choke Point, just like Masterson mentioned in his post above.
Some NEETs might suggest bypassing banks and credit unions altogether, but then how will you buy a house? Lease an apartment? Purchase a new car? Or partake in any financial venture that requires a credit, debit, or checking account?
It’s essentially China’s Social Credit System in everything but name. And whole point of the Social Credit System is to deplatform an individual to the point where they can no longer afford to sustain themselves. Essentially bankrupting them and forcing them to live in poverty or commit suicide.
In fact, the Global Times reported that Hou Yunchun, former deputy director of the development research center of the State Council, confirmed that this was the intent of the Social Credit System. Yunchun explained…
“If we don’t increase the cost of being discredited, we are encouraging discredited people to keep at it. That destroys the whole standard.”
Applied to the current situation, what this means is that you will continue to see every “free speech” alternative deplatformed until people stop pining, stop fighting, stop utilizing the speech, or propagating the ideas that the Intersectional Inquisition no longer wants disseminated throughout society.
Unfortunately, warning people about this kind of censorship has fallen on deaf ears, and most people don’t recognize just how dire the situation is, nor will they recognize how dire the situation is until they’re breathing their last breaths in the gulag.
(Thanks for the news tip durka durka)
