Mailchimp has terminated Stefan Molyneux’s account

[DataAF]

Doesn't this open Nandini Jammi up to a Tortious interference lawsuit?

Sounds like Stefan and Mailchimp had a business arrangement and she's now a third party interfering with it (and bragging on twitter).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interference

[gdulli]

I can't imagine a situation where MailChimp is legally prevented from enforcing its own terms of use just because a third party pointed out the breach. Think of how exploitable that loophole would be.

[neekleer]

I can see why people would have a strong dislike of Molyneux, but I think cancel culture is now targeting people that are not that extreme.

[corporate_shi11]

This is an attack on free speech.

"Just use a different service!" people will say. Great, until other services also terminate your account.

Yes these are private companies, but a very small number of them have tremendous control over what people see and hear online. The ideal of free speech overcomes the ideal of private corporate autonomy for me, and I believe it does for most.

The nature of social media and online services requires we rethink regulation. People should not be kicked off of platforms and services unless they are using those services to break the law.

[viro]

You don't have a right to some one else's property. That company has a right to refuse service to any non protected class it sees fit. Kinda like if Mailchimp was a baker ;). Can't just change the rules since the baker is bigger.

[dangus]

“Free speech” is a constitutional concept that defines how the government is allowed to interact with citizens.

Freedom of speech does not exist for private institutions and companies.

I would direct anyone who has a problem with this to the Mailchimp terms of use and acceptable use policy, which state:

> Mailchimp may refuse service, close accounts of any Members, and change eligibility requirements at any time.

Additionally, here’s a link to the acceptable use policy, which excludes a number of generally legal but undesired uses: https://mailchimp.com/legal/acceptable_use/

In my mind, extremist views don’t need to be defended by businesses and companies. In fact, refusing service to those extremists is a great way to moderate our society. A great way for Stefan to not get kicked off of platforms would be to stop spreading white supremacy.

To give you an identical analogy, if a couple of people told the bartender that I was harassing and hitting on them, the bartender could kick me out of the bar. I don’t have a right to a trial or due process. I don’t have the right to explain myself or present evidence. I have to accept that. But generally, that won’t happen to me if I just act like a well-adjusted human being.

[JohnFen]

> The ideal of free speech overcomes the ideal of private corporate autonomy for me, and I believe it does for most.

Then don't use services that behave in a way you disagree with. I know that you tried to write off that answer in your first sentence, but in my opinion it's the best solution in terms of balancing competing rights.

[Sohcahtoa82]

The principle of "Free speech" exists mainly to protect people who want to criticize their government and for people to have debates.

And there are plenty of hot button issues that are certainly debatable. Taxes, abortion, death penalty, universal healthcare, gun rights, etc. I could go on and one. Nobody should ever be silenced or deplatformed for having an opinion on any of these things.

But racism, bigotry, and white supremacy? No. That's hate speech, and IMO, shouldn't covered under the principle of free speech. You can attack ideas in your speech all you want, but you can't attack people for attributes they were born with. Try to be coy all you want about how they're only words, but words incite violence, even without being explicitly violent.

[iron0013]

https://mailchimp.com/legal/terms/

Seems pretty clear cut to me. SM was in violation of the Mailkimp TOS. I don’t get why this is newsworthy though?

[bufferoverflow]

Which term did he violate exactly?

[forgottenpass]

Isn't Mailchimps buisness model to look the other way and whistle as people violate their TOS and send spam anyway?

[bufferoverflow]

Wikipedia is largely controlled by the left. They will call far-right and white nationalist pretty much anybody they disagree with. They called Milo Yiannopoulos all of that, you know, the gay guy who dates black guys.

[dang]

It's an obvious violation of the site guidelines to post like this. You may not owe the other person any better, but you owe this community much better if you want to post here. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the spirit of this site when commenting, regardless of how right you are or feel.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

[nif2ee]

Cheap-shots like this are the only cheap thing you can get from a company like Mailchimp

[bufferoverflow]

Terminated based on a false f###ing allegation. No checks, no verifications, nothing. All you need to know about doing business with MailChimp.