Amid reports that billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel plans to donate $1.25 million to the Donald Trump campaign, many threatened to boycott PayPal, the company Thiel is famous for cofounding.
But Thiel, who gave a speech in support of Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention, does not have any current affiliation with PayPal. He left the company when it was sold to eBay in 2002 (it has since spun off). And he’snot even a major shareholder.
Boycotting Thiel’s interests, especially if you were to include investments made by venture capital firms in which he is a partner, would be much more difficult than just canceling one account. If a protester wanted to make absolutely sure that they were not directly or indirectly benefiting Thiel, they’d need to quit Facebook, avoid making transactions using credit card processor Stripe, stop listening to Spotify, carry a list of thousands of Y Combinator companies, and move somewhere other than the United States (without booking an Airbnb). Because Thiel is deeply tied to many of Silicon Valley’s most popular products – READ MORE
