Well, this literally effected me back in 2010 when I tried to donate to Wikileaks.
Visa and mastercard and all the banks banned transactions to Wikileaks even though no laws were broken.
They successfully censored transactions to them, without going through the court system.
The police did not force visa and mastercard to allow transactions to these places.
It is worse then that actually. The police PARTICIPATE in taking away money from people who haven't been convinced of any crimes.
Did you know is that if the police merely suspect you of "money laundering" or drug crimes or whatever, that they can just take your assets? They don't need a court order. They can just take the money that you are carrying, and in order to get it back you have to prove your innocence.
It is literally guilty until proven innocent with regards to police asset forfeiture. It is possible that you will never get that money back, even if you are never charged with a crime.
This is just one example though. The banks censor financial transactions ALL the time, even though no laws are being broken. You know, private company that can do whatever they want, and all that.
Or for other examples, just Google PayPal horror stories, of some administrator arbitrarily freezing people's money.
And I am talking about people who have broken zero laws, or have been convicted of anything in a court.
Someone at PayPal can just freeze your money, and who knows when or if you will get it back, without a court order. And this really does happen to people all the time.
Visa and mastercard and all the banks banned transactions to Wikileaks even though no laws were broken.
They successfully censored transactions to them, without going through the court system.
The police did not force visa and mastercard to allow transactions to these places.
It is worse then that actually. The police PARTICIPATE in taking away money from people who haven't been convinced of any crimes.
Did you know is that if the police merely suspect you of "money laundering" or drug crimes or whatever, that they can just take your assets? They don't need a court order. They can just take the money that you are carrying, and in order to get it back you have to prove your innocence.
It is literally guilty until proven innocent with regards to police asset forfeiture. It is possible that you will never get that money back, even if you are never charged with a crime.
This is just one example though. The banks censor financial transactions ALL the time, even though no laws are being broken. You know, private company that can do whatever they want, and all that.
Or for other examples, just Google PayPal horror stories, of some administrator arbitrarily freezing people's money.
And I am talking about people who have broken zero laws, or have been convicted of anything in a court.
Someone at PayPal can just freeze your money, and who knows when or if you will get it back, without a court order. And this really does happen to people all the time.