This week, another large corporation has climbed into the trenches of the culture war, furthering a trend that is inciting plenty of animated banter on both sides of the divide. This week, Australian major bank Westpac cancelled the account of renown white supremacy numpty, Blair Cottrell.
Having been banned on just about all reputable social media platforms, Blair took to his personal Gab account to share a correspondence he received from the bank.
In the email, the bank notifies Cottrell that they have made the “commercial decision” to cancel his account. In somewhat of a text-based mic drop, the bank then goes on to explain that they won’t be giving any further explanation to Cottrell.
The Brag has reached out to Westpac for comment, and will update accordingly.
Westpac has given Cottrell until July 25th to make alternative arrangements before permanently closing his account.
It’s legally risky for The Brag to straight-up assume why Cottrell’s account was cancelled. But when you consider that PayPal also permanently banned Cottrell, as have Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, it paints a picture that perhaps large organisations don’t want his brand of white supremacy vitriol on their platforms, nor to do they want him to use their platforms for profit.
Cottrell shall remain unquoted in this article, but in his post about the cancellation he was quick to play the victim, quoting something about a white genocide and something else about Westpac making your kids gay…(?)
Of course, it’s impossible to say but as a Westpac customer who isn’t a neo-Nazi, and not currently facing conviction under Victoria’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, my personal account has not been cancelled this morning.
No doubt Cottrell will stick and move, like the cockroach he is, transferring his whole balance of $10.75 to another bank.
The right to far right were quick to cry foul of Westpac’s move, slamming it as a move against free speech. We’ll happily remind those that they remain free to say whatever they like, but not free from the consequences.
Happy banking!
