You are a senior executive at PayPal. PayPal (which also owns Venmo) is an online payment processor. It has 325 million active users, making it a dominant (but by no means the only) player in the space. Many businesses rely on PayPal for online payments.

While PayPal makes it services broadly available, it does require users to agree to its terms and conditions and has an acceptable use policy prohibiting the use of PayPal for transactions involving:

The promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory or the financial exploitation of a crime,

items that are considered obscene, and

certain sexually oriented materials or services.

Violation of the acceptable use policy can result in a business being banned from PayPal. That decision might be made by a PayPal employee, but it is often determined by an algorithm. The only explanation given to the business is that their account has been suspended for violating the acceptable use policy. PayPal does not have an appeal process and has only very rarely reinstated accounts once suspended.

Examples include:

PayPal suspended the accounts of an independent media outlet that published articles skeptical of Covid restrictions and its owner (the accounts were reinstated after a public backlash).

PayPal suspended the accounts of independent media outlets that published skeptical articles about the Russia-Ukraine war.

PayPal suspended the account of a critic of transgender activism who used PayPal to accept payment for his criticism-related merchandise.

Venmo restricted the account of a Muslim woman for a payment with the note al-aqsa. She was paying her friend back for a meal at the Al-Aqsa Restaurant in New York City.

PayPal suspended the account of a user who bought a t-shirt from the heavy metal band Isis (they used the name first).

PayPal suspended the account of the founder of Proud Boys.

PayPal suspended the accounts of three antifa groups.

PayPal has recently come under public scrutiny for these practices, both from critics who say it suspends too few accounts and critics who say it suspends too many accounts. PayPal has been subjected to both public pressure campaigns and lawsuits.

You have been asked to provide an analysis and recommendation to the CEO of PayPal on what PayPals policy should be. You have been asked to apply the Six-Step Process (skipping the seventh and final step) and the virtue theory. Your analysis should be roughly 1-2 pages long. This is a closed-universe assignment, and you do not need to and should not consult any additional sources.