Banks acting against platforms that spread Covid misinformation: report

Banks and payment services in the Netherlands are blocking the accounts of organizations they believe spread misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccinations. Over the past months at least eight online channels were placed on waiting lists by banks or had their accounts closed, NRC reports based on its own research.

Triodos bank refused to take action group Viruswaarheid as customer, saying that the group "called for confrontations that are at odds with our values", NRC quoted an email from the bank to Viruswaarheid.

Payment service Mollie cut ties with evangelist Jaap Dieleman in February, after he spread his magazine Eyeopener among millions of households. Mollie informed him that his messages against getting vaccinated "do not fit with Mollie's business operations", according to the newspaper. Mollie also banned Café Weltschmerz, a popular YouTube channel that claims the coronavirus is a conspiracy, in mid-April.

Publisher De Blauwe Tijger ran into problems with ING shortly after anti-terrorism coordinator NCTV labeled it "a conduit for anti-government propaganda, fake news and conspiracy theories."

Bunq cut ties with the collective 'Artsen voor Waarheid' after the group spread a letter among general practitioners claiming that the GPs themselves are liable for the side effects of Covid-19 vaccines.

A Rabobank spokesperson confirmed to NRC that it no longer accepts customers who spread "conspiracy theories and other proven disinformation" because the bank considers their actions "harmful".

The banks also keep an extra close eye on these organizations' money flows, through the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act, according to the newspaper.