Five times GoFundMe shut down conservative fundraisers

GoFundMe is one of the largest crowdfunding platforms in the United States, but over recent years, the company has faced scrutiny for its content moderation policies.

The platform has rules for fundraisers on its site to fight against scams and money being raised for illegal activities, but some prominent Republicans have accused the company of being biased against conservatives in the enforcement of its policies.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for his part, has said he will work with Florida’s attorney general to investigate GoFundMe’s “deceptive practices.”

Here are five examples of fundraisers the company has faced controversy for removing over recent years:

Freedom Convoy

GoFundMe said it took down a fundraiser last week for the “Freedom Convoy” — a group of Canadian truckers who were protesting Canadian rules requiring truckers to be fully vaccinated or comply with quarantine and testing requirements. The convoy drove across parts of Canada to Ottawa, the capital, as part of its protest.

GoFundMe said in a statement that it had discussions with Canadian authorities and concluded that the group had violated its policies that prohibit the “promotion of violence and harassment.” It also announced that it would return all of the $9 million worth of donations the page received.

Kyle Rittenhouse

In 2020, GoFundMe removed fundraisers on its platform that supported Kyle Rittenhouse, who was arrested at the time for a shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse was gearing up for a legal fight, arguing that he was innocent and fatally shot two men and injured another in self-defense. Some of the fundraisers were intended to raise money for his legal defense. GoFundMe said it refunded all donations.

Last November, following the not guilty verdict in the Rittenhouse trial, GoFundMe lifted its ban on fundraisers for Rittenhouse. The company said its terms of service prohibited individuals from “raising money for the legal defense of an alleged violent crime” on its platform. Since Rittenhouse was found not guilty, the company concluded fundraising for his legal defense no longer violated its policy.

GoFundMe has removed fundraisers for individuals in the past who have been accused of violent crimes, such as the suspect in Waukesha’s Christmas parade carnage last year. But some conservatives have noted that it left up some fundraisers for Black Lives Matter and members of antifa despite allegations of violence, including a campaign to support the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in 2020. The protesters pushed out Seattle officers from a police building in 2020 and established the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.

Conservative students harassed on TikTok

GoFundMe removed a fundraiser set up last September for two conservative students at Arizona State University who were harassed on TikTok. One of the students had a “Police Lives Matter” sticker on his laptop. The other student had a T-shirt that said, “Did not vote for Biden.” The two were doing work in the school’s multicultural center when other students came up to them and told them their presence in the center made them “uncomfortable,” noting their white skin color and the slogan on the laptop.

In response, the “Libs of Tik Tok” Twitter account set up a GoFundMe for the students. GoFundMe shut it down due to alleged violations of the company’s “prohibited conduct policy,” according to an internal email “Libs of Tik Tok” tweeted. It did not further elaborate on the incident. The platform said it would refund the donations.

Anti-vaccine mandate lawsuit

A Texas nurse who had been fired by her hospital for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine set up a fundraiser in April 2021. Jennifer Bridges’s fundraiser aimed to raise money for a lawsuit to challenge the vaccine mandate at her former workplace.

GoFundMe suspended the fundraiser in October 2021. The company said her initial fundraiser to fight vaccine mandates was within its terms of service. But when it reevaluated the fundraiser, it found the page updated with “misinformation” that violated the company’s terms of service. The fundraiser accumulated over $180,000 in donations.

Anti-mask campaign

In June 2020, GoFundMe removed and refunded a campaign by a conservative activist opposing mask mandate, Alaska Public Media reported. Bernadette Wilson raised about $5,000 for a campaign featuring videos and other content showing local doctors who questioned the science behind mask mandates. It is unclear why the company removed her fundraiser, but it has argued in the past that certain types of “misinformation” violate its policies.

“Zero explanation from GoFundMe, other than a generic email that said it violated our terms and conditions. I had reached out to GoFundMe a couple different times now and asked for clarification specification on which aspects of their terms and conditions are violated. And I have heard crickets,” she said, according to the outlet.

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Individuals and businesses can use GoFundMe to set a fundraising goal and deadline to raise money for a variety of causes. The company generally takes about a 2.9% cut of the donations, according to its website.

GoFundMe is not the only major platform to face scrutiny over its content moderation policies. Social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter have long faced accusations of bias from conservatives. Recently, music streaming service Spotify was criticized by both the Left and Right for its handling of Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has in the past featured anti-vaccine mandate supporters.

GoFundMe did not respond to requests for comment but has previously defended its content moderation policies.

“People on all sides of various issues can use the platform to raise funds for many different things,” the company previously said in a statement. “We don’t always share the beliefs of every user, which is why our decisions are guided by Terms of Service and compliance with the law.”