Financial institutions in the United States have increasingly become instruments for suppressing speech, according to Elizabeth Nolan Brown's review of Transaction Denied: Big Finance's Power to Punish Speech by Rainey Reitman.

Reitman, a longtime civil liberties advocate, was first drawn to the issue in 2011 when PayPal froze the account of a group she was assisting to free whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Although PayPal reinstated the account after negative publicity, this incident sparked Reitman's interest in what she terms "financial censorship."

The book details how banks, payment processors, and credit card companies limit or close accounts of various groups—including protesters, journalists, gun rights advocates such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), adult content creators, Muslim entrepreneurs, cannabis activists, erotica writers, religious freedom fighters, and others—despite no legal violations. This practice, also called debanking, is often driven by government pressure, described as "censorship by proxy."

Examples include direct targeting of organizations like the NRA, Backpage, and WikiLeaks, as well as broader federal initiatives such as Operation Choke Point, which urged banks to scrutinize entire industries like pornography, payday lending, and gun shops. Additionally, regulations like "know your customer" laws and economic sanctions compel banks to enforce government policies.

To counter financial censorship, Reitman proposes several measures, including increased use of cash and cryptocurrency, and a legislative framework akin to Section 230 that would clarify that payment intermediaries, banks, and credit card companies are not liable for the actions of their users.

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