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The presence of right-wing militia groups has made attempting to navigate the border even more precarious for migrants and their families. Last week, The New York Time s reported that a group operating out of New Mexico detained hundreds of migrants at gunpoint. The group — known as the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP) — uploaded videos of their actions to social media. Outside donations play a big role in Crowdfunding UCP’s funding strategy and crowdfunding platforms have been a big asset for them, until now. Recently, both PayPal and GoFundMe banned the group from using their services, as reported by BuzzFeed News . Both PayPal and GoFundMe have policies regarding the promotion of hate or violence. It seems the group was removed in violation of those policies, as a PayPal spokesperson told BuzzFeed: “The account associated with United Constitutional Patriots has been closed due to a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy. We do not allow PayPal services to be used to promote...
GoFundMe just rebranded its nonprofit platform to fund a broader variety of causes. The Direct Impact Fund, will now be called Gofundme.org. The platform was originally created in 2016 and gained notoriety after assisting Hurricane Harvey victims. The nonprofit arm is helping users get tax deductions for their donation to verified fundraisers that cover a range of causes including environment, mental health, animals, veterans and K-12 classrooms. “Together with GoFundMe, we are expanding the benefits of social fundraising and continuing to support some of the most impactful needs within our community with tax-deductible donations,” CEO of GoFundMe.org Yoshi Inoue told TechCrunch. GoFundMe and GoFundMe.org are two separate entities. They operate with a different board of directors, CEOs and CFOs. Throughout the years, GoFundMe has helped thousands of people offset medical expenses, tuition costs, funerals and more. Individuals have used the platform as a safety net for large...
Anti-vax campaigns have entered the conversation around misinformation on the internet, with false theories about the harms that come with vaccinations spreading on platforms like Facebook and Youtube. The role fundraising sites play in this has mostly gone unnoticed, until now. Recently, GoFundMe shared it will remove anti-vax campaigns on its website, as reported by The Daily Beast. A spokesman for GoFundMe told the outlet, “Campaigns raising money to promote misinformation about vaccines violate GoFundMe’s terms of service and will be removed from the platform.” According to The Daily Beast, fundraisers by anti-vax groups have raised at least $170,000 in the last four years on GoFundMe. That’s a significant amount of money. Removing their ability to use GoFundMe may not completely defund anti-vax groups, but it’ll definitely make things harder for them moving forward. Anti-vax campaigns can be dangerous not only because some of them use bad science, but also because they have...