Finance & economics | Plastic policemen

Credit-card firms are becoming reluctant regulators of the web

From sex to free speech, what goes online is increasingly up to financial companies

WHO SHOULD police the internet? For some time now the question has tied companies, regulators and campaigners in knots. Social networks spend billions moderating content posted on their platforms, but are still criticised either for not removing enough toxic material or for stifling free speech. They are not the only ones to grapple with the problem. Banks and credit-card companies too are finding themselves playing a bigger role in what is said and done in the public square—to their, and their customers’, discomfort.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Plastic policemen”

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