Venmo Is The New Frontier For Trolling Your Political Enemies
Since news broke that Sean Spicer's account got raided, other conservative figures have gotten cheeky money requests on the mobile payment app
Reparations for white slavery, Antifa self-defense classes and a cup of coffee. This is just a sample of items shock media personality Milo Yiannopoulos was “charged” for on his Venmo account in the last 24 hours.
One critic “paid” Milo “because you’re a fucking nazi,” while another put money towards his “conversion therapy fund.” Milo appears to be deleting the more critical “transactions” while obliging his fans. One fan claimed that his “liberal” political science professor had trashed his copy of his article and requested money to “refund the cost of the printing fees.” Milo paid him and left the comment “Of course honey.”
“People are sending small amounts,” Milo told Vocativ in an email where he confirmed for us that the Venmo account we unearthed did indeed belong to him. “A dollar here and there. I am sending out a good deal more. I’m the internet’s fairy godmother.”
Venmo, the PayPal-meets-Twitter payment service that’s become the preferred method for friends, roommates, and coworkers to settle up the previous night’s bar tab, has long been a platform for trolling. Who among us hasn’t sent a friend a $364,000 bill “for friendship”? But in the wake of news that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s Venmo account was raided by trolls this week, it appears that Venmo users have had something of an enlightenment about the boundless possibilities for trolling political foes on the platform.
Vocativ found a number of accounts that appear to belong to various conservative political and media figures and found trolls had sent payments or charged money to them en mass within the last 24 hours. Yiannopoulos was hit especially hard, by both fans and critics alike.
Yiannopoulos, Breitbart News’ star writer and Trump-lover, is never one to turn away from attention, but other accounts have been less enthused with the trolls. An account opened this month in the name of Kellyanne Conway was overrun with nasty comments on Wednesday morning, but the comments were subsequently deleted. By noon, the account was deleted altogether.
An account in the name of alt-right leader Richard Spencer was also deleted not long after Vocativ found it on Tuesday. An account in the name of Betsy DeVos that opened in March 2014 included a profile picture of the Secretary of Education as of Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning the picture had been taken down and the name was changed to “Not Betsy DeVos.” Brilliant diversion tactic!
Requests for comment made to Venmo were returned after this article was published.
“The safety and privacy of the people using Venmo is one of our highest priorities. If there is ever a situation where a question is raised, Venmo works quickly to address any concerns that are brought to our attention,” a spokesperson told Vocativ in an email. “Our users are the focus of everything we do and our goal is to ensure they have a positive experience when using Venmo.”
The spike in trolling since the Spicer news broke, whether widespread or merely concentrated around conservative political figures, highlights an issue Venmo will need to address as it transitions from sporadically used FinTech startup to near-ubiquity. Twitter is either unable or uninterested in removing the legions of trolls on its platform, but given that Venmo doubles as a utility and a social media platform, users may be less tolerant of trolls commenting and tracking their individual payments.
The platform is also ripe for fraud. There are multiple accounts claiming to be Donald Trump that include interactions with fake Hillary Clinton accounts. One doesn’t need an active imagination to see how users could be scammed into giving money to someone claiming to be someone they are not.