PayPal Removes Hate and Intolerance Language from Rules After ADF Challenge

Faith Facts

• The Alliance Defending Freedom is a legal ministry defending religious liberty and free speech for Christians and other people of faith.
• Christians have faced increasing debanking due to their biblical beliefs on marriage, gender, and life issues.
• PayPal’s policy change follows years of concerns from conservatives about viewpoint discrimination by financial institutions.

PayPal has removed the terms “hate” and “intolerance” from its acceptable use policy following an objection filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom before a federal banking regulator.

The change comes after ADF raised concerns that PayPal’s previous language could be used to target Christians and conservative organizations for their biblical beliefs.

PayPal’s updated policy now focuses on illegal activities rather than vague moral judgments that critics argued opened the door to viewpoint discrimination.

Conservative leaders have long warned that financial institutions were using subjective terms like “hate” and “intolerance” to justify debanking individuals and ministries that uphold traditional values.

“We are grateful that PayPal has removed this troubling language from its rules,” said an ADF spokesperson. “Vague terms like ‘hate’ and ‘intolerance’ have been weaponized against Christians who simply believe what the Bible teaches about marriage and human sexuality.”

The policy revision represents a win for religious liberty advocates who have argued that financial service companies should not serve as arbiters of moral or political speech.

Many Christian ministries and conservative organizations have reported being denied payment processing services or having accounts frozen over their stances on life, marriage, and gender issues.

ADF’s action before the federal regulator highlighted how such policies could chill free speech and religious exercise by giving private companies broad power to define acceptable beliefs.

The change signals growing pushback against corporate attempts to enforce ideological conformity through financial gatekeeping.

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