PayPal Is Waging War Against This Veteran-Owned Conservative Business (Again)

It appears PayPal is yet again targeting Proof Products USA, a veteran-owned conservative e-commerce company. According to the company’s owner, Dana Peters, the mega financial technology corporation is withholding funds from Proof Products USA’s subsidiary metal fabric shop, “Milspin,” until the online store removes several listings of brass knuckles. In a press release, Proof Products USA stated that it “will not comply.”

In an email Peters shared with The Federalist, PayPal reportedly wrote, “A recent review of your account activity identified products/services on your website violate PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy. Specifically, brass paperweight” is Brass knuckles are not allowed. are associated with https://milspin.com/collections/solid-metal-paperweights and are not permitted on our platform (sic).” The email continues, stating that Proof Product USA’s “account has been limited temporarily” and that to resolve the issue Proof Products USA must either “remove” the brass knuckles listings or “remove or deactivate PayPal as a payment option for the violating items outlined above.”

This isn’t the first time PayPal has allegedly withheld funds from Proof Products USA. In 2021, Peters said that PayPal kept $90,000 from “Fake Masks Worldwide,” a different subsidiary online store of Proof Products USA, for selling “breathable masks.”

Fake Masks Worldwide wrote in a November, 23rd press release: “The left leaning meat wallet organization of PayPal strikes again. They want us to delete all the products they don’t agree with from our website. So they’ve locked the account and are withholding all funds until we comply. We will not comply. Nerds. Any orders that were paid for via PayPal will still be fulfilled, because we aren’t thieves and we put our customers first, unlike PayPal.”

Peters says PayPal never stated what rule exactly Proof Products USA violated in either instance. “I dug really deep into their terms last year,” Peters told The Federalist. “[PayPal’s rules] are so vaguely written that it could be one of a dozen different things that would violate their terms. Basically, anything you’re selling, they can justify as violating their terms.” The Federalist repeatedly reached out to PayPal to ask which specific rule Proof Products USA violated in both instances but received no response. 

Peters explained that when PayPal first targeted his company, it came with a canceling avalanche. “Within a matter of two weeks,” said Peters, his store’s advertising was banned on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and he was also punished by PayPal, Shopify, and even his domain host. “It was just one after the other,” stated Peters. “We had to build a whole brand new website with a different URL. … It was crippling and cut our revenue down by half.” Eventually, Peters brought in lawyers to recover his original URL and the $90,000 PayPal was withholding from his company.  

When asked why Proof Products USA still uses PayPal after the first round of targeting, Peters told The Federalist that he’s kept PayPal for his various brands (except his “Fake Masks” site) since “a ton of people trust PayPal to pay for things on the internet because they know if they did get scammed, PayPal will return