PayPal bans Active Shooter publisher for breaching its Acceptable Use Policy

While controversial school shooting simulator Active Shooter was removed from Steam at the end of last month, it has remained purchasable directly through Acid Software’s website. Unfortunately, it’s just lost the support of one of the biggest means of payment, as PayPal has barred the publisher from using its services.

At some point surrounding its removal from Steam, Active Shooter also found itself banned from selling on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. Acid Software had just about got its own website up and running on June 12th in its attempt to “fight for our rights and freedom of expression.”

The publisher began experiencing problems with PayPal just one week later, with the payment platform effectively disassociating itself with the publisher on June 19th, prompting Acid Software claiming it is in talks to resolve the problems.

We are experiencing few issues with #Paypal now. So if you are having issues with purchasing #ActiveShooter from the Acid Software, please wait for us to resolve the issue.#QuitCensoringUs #ActiveShooter #FreedomOfExpression #WeWillBeBack

— ACID (@ACID_WTF) June 19, 2018

“PayPal has a longstanding, well-defined and consistently enforced Acceptable Use Policy, and regardless of the individual or organization in question, we work to ensure that our services are not used to accept payments for activities that promote violence,” PayPal explained in an interview with The Associated Press.

This differs from Valve’s reason for removing Active Shooter on Steam, with the platform highlighting Acid Software founder Ata Berdyev as “a troll, with a history of customer abuse, publishing copyrighted material, and user review manipulation.”

Despite the statements from Valve and PayPal, Berdyev complained to The Associated Press that “everyone in US is trying to censor us, whilst not explaining what exactly we are violating.” For the time being, Active Shooter is listed as “out of stock” on the publisher’s website while it works to resolve payment problems, however the demo remains available.

KitGuru Says: While I fundamentally disagree with the premise of the game, I agree that the developers have a right to freedom of speech. I’d personally be more concerned on the supposed dodgy past of Berdyev and whether I’d get what I’m paying for. Do you agree with PayPal’s decision to ban Acid Software from its service?

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