The news comes from the official blog of
ProtonMail itself. The donations came in for the project from an
Indiegogo project that promised to give people a mail which the NSA cannot crack. They first claimed this violated guidelines on government approval.
PayPal has been donation-phobic over pretty much the entire course of their company. There have been literally hundreds of crowdfunding and donation-centered products that have been locked out. Here are some very different examples from
gaming,
technology and a cancer
charity event. This happens so often that this is not the first time a
mail site has had accounts frozen with them.
According to a report
by CSO PayPal is blaming the freeze on a "glitch" that falsely marked the ProtonMail project as one needing clearance. Also according to the same source the account has been unfrozen and the problem has been resolved. Whether PayPal has gotten over their fear of donations is another question entirely.