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Online merchants linked to QAnon down, but not out, following platform bans

(Reuters) - Since last year, entrepreneur Dustin Krieger has faced bans by an expanding list of big tech companies: four blocked PayPal accounts, half a dozen Twitter deactivations, de-listed merchandise by Shopify and most recently Amazon’s removal of his widely reviewed book promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory. But he’s not giving up. “We’ll maintain our own presence everywhere we are allowed,” Krieger, president of a Wyoming-registered company, told Reuters. Technology firms including Amazon.com Inc, eBay Inc, and PayPal Holdings Inc, which have taken action against businesses peddling extremism in recent years, have come down hard after the deadly Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Yet merchants like Krieger show how efforts to “de-platform” vendors, while lowering their revenues, have resulted in a game of whack-a-mole as individuals set up new accounts or shift to different sites, sometimes using cryptocurrency. Krieger estimates he lost between $1 million to $2 million in sales from a crackdown that he said was being directed by a “rabid leftist cancel culture mob,” but he believes he can recover. “The benefit of my business model is many legs to stand on, many patriots support one another and choose to shop patriot with our sponsors,” he said over email. Krieger goes by “Dustin Nemos” on social media. As of Sunday, Krieger’s websites offered $19.99 “Sleepy Joe” sleep aids that refer derisively to President Joe Biden and a $15.45 per month ground coffee subscription named after the so-called “Great Awakening” linked to the QAnon theory, which claims Trump secretly fought a cabal of child-sex predators including Hollywood figures and prominent Democrats. Visitors can pay for some items through Visa Inc-owned Authorize.net using major credit card networks. A Visa spokesman said, “We are vigilant in our efforts to deter illegal activity on our network, and we require our affiliate banks to review their merchants’ compliance with our standards.” DE-PLATFORMING While it is difficult to estimate how much far-right and fringe causes earn in the United States, experts who study extremist groups say it can add up to big business. Following the Capitol riot, Stripe suspended payment processing for Trump’s campaign website. Reuters found that Trump merchandise sales on top e-commerce platforms and the president’s campaign site, as well as supporters’ fundraising to maintain billboards and fly aerial banners over cities, have garnered about $30 million in the past year, according to data from web analytics firm SimilarWeb and studies from several researchers. Last year, fringe groups in particular generated at least $2 million according to researcher findings and an estimate of e-commerce sales. This included over $150,000 crowdfunded by an author under the name Neon Revolt to publish a QAnon book. Also included were $559,000 in bitcoin payments to individuals or organizations that promote extreme right views, according to data from Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm. Bit

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