{"id":53424,"date":"2023-05-11T12:53:21","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T16:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nlpc.org\/?p=53424"},"modified":"2023-09-11T12:35:07","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T16:35:07","slug":"nlpc-verizon-should-dump-paypals-cancel-culture-ceo-from-its-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nlpc.org\/featured-news\/nlpc-verizon-should-dump-paypals-cancel-culture-ceo-from-its-board\/","title":{"rendered":"NLPC: Verizon Should Dump PayPal’s Cancel Culture CEO from Its Board"},"content":{"rendered":"
On Thursday, National Legal and Policy Center presented a proposal<\/a> at\u00a0Verizon Communications Inc.<\/a>\u2018s annual shareholder meeting in Salt Lake City, that would require the company to produce a semi-annual report which would itemize requests it has received from the federal government to censor<\/a> its customers.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s board of directors opposed our proposal, as explained on pages 65-66 in its proxy statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last month NLPC filed a proxy memo<\/a> with the Securities and Exchange Commission<\/a> in response to the board’s opposition.<\/p>\n Speaking as sponsor of the resolution was\u00a0Paul Chesser<\/a>, director of NLPC\u2019s\u00a0Corporate Integrity Project<\/a>. A transcript of his three-minute\u00a0remarks\u00a0follows:<\/p>\n Good morning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Verizon opposes our proposal for a report on government takedown requests because the Company says it already publishes so-called \u201cTransparency Reports<\/a>,\u201d and therefore the report we request isn\u2019t necessary.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But what Verizon calls a \u201cTransparency Report,\u201d is nothing of the sort.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The report we seek asks for specific requests for censorship that Verizon has received from all branches of the United States government.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n All Verizon\u2019s alleged \u201cTransparency Reports\u201d give you are numbers<\/a>, and zero transparency.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As we have seen from the revelations in the \u201cTwitter Files<\/a>,\u201d agencies controlled by the White House censored their critics via social and corporate media entities, at an unprecedented scale.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For example, major tech companies including Verizon met monthly<\/a> with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security ahead of the 2020 election, to discuss how to handle so-called \u201celection misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Platforms, including those controlled by Verizon, reportedly removed alleged \u201cmisinformation\u201d at the request of the government.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yet there are no such disclosures of any censorship incidents in Verizon\u2019s phony \u201cTransparency Report.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But the type of report we request would include them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Verizon also engaged in election interference when it abruptly shut down a test run of one of Donald Trump\u2019s most important voter-contact programs<\/a> one weekend in July 2020, potentially costing the former president millions of dollars in donations.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And in 2021, members of Congress who regulate the telecom industry wrote to Verizon urging them to drop One America News Network and other conservative-leaning news channels<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Verizon ended its 17-year relationship with OANN, while the discredited<\/a>, flailing<\/a> CNN remains on the Company\u2019s channel listings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If Verizon truly wanted to stop \u201cmisinformation,\u201d they would dump CNN.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Verizon, meanwhile, claims that, \u201cOur respect for the right to freedom of expression of opinion is fundamental to our business.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Because of these examples I cited and others, we doubt that Verizon genuinely believes in freedom of speech.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But if Verizon wants the public<\/em> to believe that, one step they could take is to ask for the resignation of Dan Schulman<\/a> from the Board of Directors.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While he\u2019s been CEO of PayPal<\/a>, that company has implemented some of the most extreme cancel culture and censorship policies<\/a> in Corporate America, including trying to impose a $2,500 fine<\/a> of account holders who allegedly promote \u201cmisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PayPal also terminated, without warning, the account<\/a> of one of the last remaining pro-Democracy groups in Hong Kong, before it fell to the communist Chinese<\/a> government.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I could cite many more examples<\/a> of PayPal\u2019s cancel culture actions<\/a> during Mr. Schulman\u2019s tenure<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He has no business being on the board of a major media or telecom corporation \u2013 or any company for that matter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thank you, and please vote FOR Item 5 on the proxy statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read NLPC\u2019s shareholder proposal for the Verizon annual meeting here<\/a>.<\/p>\n