The escalating violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has caused donations to pour in for aid groups. But some donations on Venmo are getting stalled and even stopped.
The payment app is reportedly pausing some attempts to fundraise for Palestinian causes — particularly if the payments have any combination of words like “Palestinian” or “Palestine” alongside the phrase “relief fund,” according to tests conducted by Rest of World, an international nonprofit journalism organization that covers primarily the intersection of technology and culture.
In one screenshot posted to Twitter on Monday, Venmo’s customer support appeared to ask a user about a $50 payment they had received for “Emergency Palestinian Relief Fund.” The screenshot showed Venmo was “trying to understand… the reference to ‘Palestinian Relief Fund'” and asked the user for the “purpose of this payment, including a complete and detailed explanation of what is intended to be paid for and the establishment/location.” The company also asked for a “brief summary” of the poster’s fundraising efforts, and “details on how the funds will get to the beneficiaries,” according to the screenshot.
The user told Rest of World that he was collecting funds to donate to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, an organization established by humanitarians in the U.S. to bring free medical care to injured and sick children.
A Venmo spokesperson told Mashable that the company isn’t blocking legitimate payments entirely, but they are holding them for a review period, which typically lasts 48 hours. Venmo did not respond to Mashable about what qualifies as a legitimate payment, but pointed to a blog post updated in March 2020 that describes the company’s review process, which includes screening payment activity and flagging any payments that could violate U.S. economic sanctions.
“In most cases, this review process will only result in a short delay and not impact the completion of user transactions,” the blog post reads. “This is an ever-evolving process and our teams are continuously working to improve and refine our approach and associated review times.”
The company also noted to Mashable that it is required to comply with U.S. government Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions. Hamas, a militant group that doesn’t recognize Israel, is a target of three OFAC terrorism sanction programs. OFAC also has an active sanction against what Gizmodo calls “some relatively innocuous-sounding groups, including Interpal, the working name for the London-based Palestinian Relief and Development Fund.” OFAC sanctions are also active against any of the charities potential aliases, like “Palestine Relief Fund,” or “Palestinian Relief Fund.”
According to Gizmodo and Rest of World, it appears payments with “Palestinian” or “Palestine” alongside the phrase “relief fund” are algorithmically scanned and paused. In tests conducted by the news sites, transactions with the phrases “free Palestine,” “Free Palestinian,” “Palestinian emergency,” and “Palestinian fund,” were all completed, but transactions labeled “Palestinian emergency relief fund,” and “Emergency Palestinian relief fund” were flagged.
Venmo did not respond to Mashable’s request for comment on if this is an algorithmic mistake, but a spokesperson said the company “strives to balance” the obligations from U.S. economic and trade sanctions “with the urgency of our users’ desire to send humanitarian aid.” Venmo and its parent company, PayPal, are based out of the U.S.
“We understand the importance of these transactions and apologize for any delay that may occur as we work to quickly process payments in compliance with applicable law,” a Venmo spokesperson told Mashable.
Venmo is not the only American tech company taking heat for how it’s navigating this crisis. On Tuesday, a group of 250 concerned “Jewish and allied Googlers” wrote and signed a letter to Googled CEO Sundar Pichai to demand that the company provide relief to Palestinians. And, on May 7, Access Now accused both Twitter and Instagram of “systematically silencing users protesting and documenting the evictions of Palestinian families from their homes.”
Disclosure: IGN (owned by Mashable’s publisher, Ziff Davis) has also been the subject of criticism after removing an article about Palestinian charities.