Credit card companies used in the same manner. (Score 1)

Also, don't forget the way those with state power in America routinely lean on the near-monopoly in the credit card industry to effectively censor ideas they don't like, as in the example of the website Insex, who's owner received a visit from the FBI when they cut off his credit card processing because "it was rumored that 'terrorists' were using violent pornography as a means of laundering money". WINK WINK, NOD NOD. That gasping is the sound of your freedom of expression being extinguished. The feds are using the same playbook with wikileaks now.