PayPal gets a list of banned strings from the Office of Foreign Asset controls.
If any match those strings it's flagged for a review.
This is more or less legally required for any company that moves money in the United States of America. You will probably find the same issues with the same terms on any other banking for financial body.
Technically, these aren't being blocked. They're being audited. The payments will still go through. The way this is taking place is following very specific legally "known good" pathways - so that when paypal does accidentally let a payment through to a sanctioned entity they are able to argue that they took every available precaution and should not have to pay the $250k per transaction fine.
If any match those strings it's flagged for a review.
This is more or less legally required for any company that moves money in the United States of America. You will probably find the same issues with the same terms on any other banking for financial body.
Technically, these aren't being blocked. They're being audited. The payments will still go through. The way this is taking place is following very specific legally "known good" pathways - so that when paypal does accidentally let a payment through to a sanctioned entity they are able to argue that they took every available precaution and should not have to pay the $250k per transaction fine.
The last time PayPal had to pay these fines - for example - it was ~$7m. That's not including legal fees. https://fcpablog.com/2015/03/27/ofac-fines-paypal-77-million...