Financial Censorship Controversy: Financial Services Leading Social Change?

This critical incident explores numerous frameworks to describe and assess key censorship issues from a financial industry perspective. Recent mass shootings, controversial use of social media, and other high-profile events have made financial censorship in the U.S. a relevant topic. Some financial companies such as Chase Bank, Mastercard, and PayPal have taken steps to ban or curtail legal transactions that may indirectly be associated with criminal acts, hateful speech, immoral or extreme opinions while other institutions refrained. Therefore, the entire financial industry is deeply concerned about the legal, ethical, and social change aspects of the controversy and its challenges, limitations, and consequences. Readers are asked to assess the controversy and recommend viable actions the industry might take to address current and expanded use of financial censorship.