
Tell HN: the word "Niger" (the country) seems blocked in Venmo memos - broahmed
Was donating to a charitable cause in Niger and was able to use the word &quot;Niger&quot; in late April (&quot;sadaqah&quot; = charity in Arabic): https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;yq1tWCq<p>I no longer can. Two examples with the word &quot;Niger&quot; in it: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;pDunMej<p>Reproduced on someone else&#x27;s phone as well.<p>I suspect it&#x27;s because 1) of recent USA events and 2) &quot;Niger&quot; is one letter away from being the n-word. Contacted customer support but they didn&#x27;t seem to understand I was trying to file a bug report. My goal isn&#x27;t to get a customer service rep in trouble, so I won&#x27;t bother posting the transcript unless people think it would be helpful.<p>Ideas on how to inform Venmo of this? Wanted to create an Ask HN, but couldn&#x27;t figure out a short enough question for the title character limit.
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gitgud
This demonstrates why censorship via automation is so difficult. You basically
need to understand a lot of the context around the use-case, in order to
determine if the word should be allowed/disallowed.

Even if you succeed, people evade these systems by developing slang and
substituting special characters...

Preventing hate speech from users is a very hard problem, with automation
alone.

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codegeek
Hit up their public accounts such as Twitter/facebook etc. They will probably
respond more promptly there. Be nice about it and let them know the issue in a
clear and coherent way.

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broahmed
That's a good idea. DMed @VenmoSupport on Twitter. Thank you.

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novok
Stop using venmo & probably paypal. They uniquely block transactions based on
stupid keyword basis. Also happens with 'persian food'.

On top of that, venmo really wants to make your transactions public, while
ones like square cash do not. I also don't think they do the stupid keyword
thing too.

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muzani
It's sad when a whole country becomes a racial slur in some other country. But
I guess for every person who has a valid reason to use the word, there are a
thousand trolls trying to use the country name as a loophole. So I'm not
surprised if customer service thinks you're filing a troll bug report.

~~~
broahmed
That's what I was thinking: it's an overly aggressive attempt at blocking the
n-word.

Tried a payment with the word "Nigeria" in it and that went through
successfully.

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ShamelessC
Would it make sense to only censor the word if it's lower case?

I mean I still see no reason why a transaction shouldn't go through even if it
had the word spelled properly. Black people don't have a problem using it
(deservedly so!) and I there are contexts where it is somewhat acceptable to
use it if only to refer to (for instance) a racist character in a novel.

~~~
ShamelessC
Can't edit now, but I just want to say that I've reconsidered this point of
view and now find it mildly racist and insensitive. Apologies if anyone was
hurt by this.

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giardini
While AI remains out of reach, AS (Artificial Stupidity) once again asserts
it's omnipresence.

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sneak
If you use the word “Syria” in the memo the payment will also be blocked.

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broahmed
I tested that out. A memo of "Syria" causes the payment to go into review and
doesn't block it outright. "Niger" in the memo results in the "Please try
another payment note" error message shown in the screenshots.

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totetsu
Maybe try "N3r" in its place.

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krrishd
1 is actually the likely answer and IIRC has to do with regulations beyond
Venmo (experienced something similar with a different country). They likely
won't be able to help beyond suggesting not mentioning it in your description.

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1f60c
Which regulations?

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krrishd
they cite OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) regulations [0], which is
what I got as an answer as well when I experienced something similar.

[0] [https://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/venmo-reportedly-
blocking-...](https://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/venmo-reportedly-blocking-
payments-that-use-the-word-persian.html)

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droopyEyelids
Venmo only allows payments to _individuals_ (unless it's an approved venmo
merchant), and only _within the USA_.

You're violating their terms of service six ways to Sunday, donating to a
charity in Niger.

In your case, Venmo is The Wrong Tool for the Job.

~~~
broahmed
Payment was to a US citizen who was doing some charitable work in Niger, and
the individual isn't working on behalf of a charity.

I appreciate the information though.

