(LifeSiteNews) — Stripe, the largest payment processor in the U.S., debanked conservative commentator Michael Knowles, reportedly due to a “legally binding order.”
As the Daily Wire host shared on Monday, his X monetization payments, which are processed through Stripe, “abruptly stopped” six months ago when he received a message that he hadn’t set up his Stripe account.
Despite Knowles’ efforts over the course of six months to determine the reason for his de-banking, Stripe never explained the reason for the decision and instead told him to consult X for an explanation.
“We would recommend contacting your platform X for more information, as we can’t provide any further information on this account hold,” Stripe employee Leigh initially told Knowles. Leigh then noted that the hold was first placed on his account on October 11, 2024, but insisted the hold could still not be explained.
In his X thread recounting the back-and-forth, Knowles wondered whether the hold began in October 2024 due to his “vocal support of someone they had already tried to de-bank.” He linked to news coverage about Stripe’s debanking of President Donald Trump’s campaign website after the 2021 “storming” of the Capitol. At the time, sources said the president’s campaign account was cut off for violating Stripe’s policies “against encouraging violence.”
Since Stripe repeatedly insisted that Knowles consult X for the reason behind his account hold, he did so but still could not obtain an explanation. X simply referred him to Stripe’s policy on prohibited businesses.
“Since I haven’t been distributing fake IDs, selling drugs, or jamming telecommunications equipment, it seems Stripe concluded that my political opinions had somehow violated their policy against encouraging ‘unlawful violence’ against certain demographics,” Knowles wrote above a screenshot of Stripe’s list of “illegal products and services.”
9/ Since I haven’t been distributing fake IDs, selling drugs, or jamming telecommunications equipment, it seems Stripe concluded that my political opinions had somehow violated their policy against encouraging “unlawful violence” against certain demographics. pic.twitter.com/6FEDrzLgzR
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) July 21, 2025
“Of course, I’ve never encouraged ‘unlawful violence’ against anyone. But in the absence of any real explanation from Stripe, I can only conclude that they’ve now decided that certain conservative opinions amount to ‘illegal’ activity,” Knowles commented.
He speculated in his Daily Wire coverage of the incident that perhaps he was de-banked for saying in 2023 that the ideology of “transgenderism has to be eradicated from public life,” which triggered an outcry from major news outlets.
“When I say men can’t be women, I’m just stating a fact of anthropology, (of) the Christian faith,” Knowles noted.
While the conservative commentator believes it is “quite likely” he was debanked for his political opinions, he is considering that it also could have been due to his religious opinions.
“There’s been a ton of anti-Catholic persecution in recent years, the Biden administration sending jackbooted thugs to spy on churches, calling Catholics extremists and radicals,” he said in reference to the FBI’s targeting of so-called “Radical Traditionalist Catholics.”
Knowles warned at the end of this thread, “If they can put a ‘hold’ on my money for no reason, they can do it to anyone.”
“This would appear to be a very unjust act that could involve potentially millions and millions of Americans,” he remarked on his Monday episode of The Michael Knowles Show. “If you’re a conservative, if you’re a Christian, you’re just a normal person who holds normal political views that everyone agreed on until five minutes ago. You are at risk of being debanked by the largest payment processor by number of merchants in the entire country.”
“Until we get an answer from them, I don’t see how we can conclude otherwise,” he added.
After Knowles finally revealed the ordeal of his debanking to the public on X, Stripe Support responded to his thread on Monday evening. “By way of follow-up, we can confirm that the restrictions placed on your account were not taken unilaterally by Stripe but were the result of a legally binding order that was issued to us.”
By way of follow-up, we can confirm that the restrictions placed on your account were not taken unilaterally by Stripe, but were the result of a legally binding order that was issued to us. Our support team previously reached out to X regarding this matter. In order to maintain…
— Stripe Support (@stripesupport) July 22, 2025
The Stripe account said they would be “following up” with Knowles “in a separate email with additional information.”
Social media users immediately took issue with the fact that Stripe was only sharing this information after Knowles made his debanking public, six months into his private efforts to learn about what happened.
“So somebody can be the subject of a legally binding order to restrict their finances and they are not obliged to be told? That’s pretty dystopian,” X user Reggie Stratton commented.
The incident heightens concerns that any person or organization, not in the U.S. but across the world, could potentially be debanked for expressing opinions, including political views. This has already happened to Brexit leader Nigel Farage, Brexit supporter and politician Richard Tice, German-speaking anti-globalist online TV and news station AUF1, and medical freedom advocate Dr. Joseph Mercola, whose business associates’ accounts were also affected.
Stripe is the largest privately owned financial tech company, with over $1.4 trillion in payment volume processed in 2024 alone. Its board members include Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada and former governor of the Bank of England and Bank of Canada. Other board members have previously held or currently hold high-ranking positions at other major companies such as Microsoft and Amazon.
