Crypto payment processors including crypto exchanges are not happy with the way Andrew Torba, the founder of a social media platform, Gab, has been conducting activities on the platform. Due to this, Torba has been locked out by Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange in the United States.

For context, the main reason Gab was formed was to offer what other social platforms like Facebook and Twitter were not offering – give people the freedom to express themselves especially in speech. Whether positive or negative.

The social media platform is often used by people who are not able to use other social media platforms which hinder how ‘strongly’ you can express yourself.

For example, a shooter who killed 11 people in Pittsburgh, used Gab to express his views moments before carrying out the shooting.

As it turns out, this is not the first time the crypto exchange is closing Gab’s founder account. For Coinbase, this is the second time it is closing the accounts as it had done the same in June last year.

Operating in a ‘free speech’ space, Torbi said:

“Coinbase has banned Gab’s account. Centralized crypto exchanges/wallets are cancer and contradictory to everything crypto stands for.”

However, Coinbase was just one of the crypto payment processors who declined to continue offering services to anyone associated with Gab. In November, the social media platform sought the services of BitPay, one of the crypto payment processors, but BitPay was not ready for them. Their account was closed with a notice:

“Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that the nature of your organization presents higher risks and we are no longer able to provide you our merchant processing service.”

Gab turned to BTCPay, a crypto payment processor.

Are these account censorships by crypto payment processors necessary in the crypto space?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.