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<aside> ➡️ Examples of Digital Payment and Crowdfunding Services Paypal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Facebook Pay, GofundMe, Patreon
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<aside> 🔷 In 2019, Venmo held up payments that included "Persian" in the description for further review, according to several users. This resulted after a group went to a Persian restaurant and tried to split the bill via Venmo [8]. One user's payment with the description "Persian shinanaganz" was flagged while others went through. Venmo asked for documentation like receipts and an explanation of the term. Some users then experimented by adding "Persian" to descriptions, which also triggered reviews. Venmo stated this is part of compliance with U.S. sanctions, but users felt it unfairly targeted Persians/Iranians.
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<aside> 📌 (UDHR Article 19: Freedom of Expression; UDHR Article 2: Freedom from discrimination; UDHR Article 20: Freedom of Association/Assembly; UDHR Article 18: Freedom of Religion; UDHR Article 25: Livelihood Protection; UDHR Article 12: Privacy); UDHR Article 26: Education
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Payment systems often allow users to include memos or notes with their transactions. These memos could potentially contain sensitive information, political views, or language that may violate the peer-to-peer payment platform's community guidelines. There have been instances where Iranians' legitimate transactions have been flagged because they included the word "Iran" or Iran-related language. This raises concerns about potential infringements on freedom of expression and discrimination against Iranians, which sometimes affects their economic stability when they rely on the payment platform for business activities.
Complying with Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations can be challenging for Iranians due to the strict identity verification requirements that often require government ID verification or collecting biometrics data and the use of machine learning-based verification systems. The key issue is ensuring secure authentication and verification procedures while respecting the privacy and personal data of Iranian users.
Due to sanctions and Iran's lack of access to international finance markets, companies often deny the transfer of funds from diaspora groups to individuals or organizations within Iran, especially for human rights causes and humanitarian agencies. This has resulted in Iranians using third-party individuals and services to facilitate transfers, sometimes resulting in scams because there is no official way to verify the legitimacy of non-profit fundraising efforts. It can also lead to Iranians incurring extra third-party fees because direct transactions are not possible.
Migrants may rely on these systems to send remittances back to their families in Iran. In addition, peer-to-peer payment systems are often used for benign purposes, such as supporting Iranian students studying abroad. Blocking these services can significantly impact these families and students socioeconomically and unfairly affect these benign uses.