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GoFundMe Freezes Canadian Truckers’ Page

For a company that does not tolerate "exclusion," GoFundMe doesn't seem to have a hard time excluding certain causes.
Chilliwack,,Bc,,Canada,-,January,23,2022:,Protesters,Gather,On

GoFundMe has paused donations to “Freedom Convoy 2022,” a page that had raised over $10 million to support the band of truckers protesting the Canadian government’s vaccine mandates. The platform allegedly shut down donations to the page to “ensure it complies with our terms of service and applicable laws and regulations.” It is more likely that GoFundMe shut the page down to appease the Canadian Parliament.

This afternoon, a group of Canadian MPs called on GoFundMe to testify before the House of Commons to describe the platform’s plans to ensure donations aren’t “being used to promote extremism, white supremacy, anti-Semitism and other forms of hate.” While the site hasn’t been a ready opponent of “extremism”—GoFundMe hosted several bail funds for people arrested in the protests and riots of 2020—it has been a ready opponent of right-wing causes, the suppression of which is the Canadian Parliament’s ultimate aim.

In 2019, for example, GoFundMe cited its “terms of service” when it kicked Israel Folau off of their platform. Folau is a former professional rugby player. While he did not burn a Wendy’s or loot a Macy’s, Folau is a Christian. He was suspended from Rugby Australia for an Instagram post encouraging “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, idolaters” to “repent,” which is a rough quotation of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. GoFundMe shut down his account.

At the time, GoFundMe said it was banning Folau’s page because while it encourages “diverse civil debate” on the platform, “we do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion.”

For a company that does not tolerate “exclusion,” it doesn’t seem to have a hard time excluding working-class Canadians or orthodox Christians.

 

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