Woodkirk Stone
The crowdfunding platform reportedly scrapped a fundraiser set up in December to finance the legal costs of a group of Hells Angels members on trial for murder.
Protesters march from Glebe Park towards the Parliamentary Triangle.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen.
GoFundMe allows legal challenges and peaceful protests related to vaccination mandates.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Greg Hunt said: “Although it is up to GoFundMe to indicate if they are in breach of their own policy, they should follow their policy and not support fundraising campaigns. anti-vaxxers.”
Labor Health spokesman Mark Butler said Prime Minister Scott Morrison should order crowdfunding platforms not to fund misinformation and, where legally possible, force them to remove pages that “ harm the health and well-being of Australians”.
“Social media platforms, including crowdfunding platforms, have a responsibility to prevent their platforms from being used to spread dangerous health information,” he said.
The US for-profit crowdfunding platform hosts other fundraisers set up by Australians opposed to vaccination mandates, including that of Jessica Szczerbinski I was fired due to Jab warrants!which raised $6,431 in just over a week.
A crowdfunding page on GoFundMe was started by a woman who said she lost her job due to vaccination mandates.Credit:GoFundMe
A GoFundMe page seen by the Herald seeking to run for office at $6,000 “to get rid of this garbage vaccine mandate and give freedom of choice back to the people it belongs to and give back to the people who were fired or forced to resign for not losing their employment and livelihoods. Last week, he had not yet received a donation.
Belinda Barnet, senior lecturer in media at Swinburne University of Technology, said the presence of fundraisers like this seems to contradict GoFundMe’s commitment to removing anti-vaxxers.
“It could be complicated by the fact that these groups often don’t identify as anti-vaxxers, and community reports for fundraisers aren’t readily available,” she said. “They need to do what they said they would do and take down these pages. And make reporting easier.
Derwent Coshott, a professor at the University of Sydney Law School, said the campaign fundraising page may be spreading misinformation about COVID-19 “given the inflammatory language in its description”.
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Some comments on the Oz to Canberra Convoy page could also constitute misinformation, Dr Coshott said, but ‘mounting challenges to lockdowns, or giving money to people out of work because they refused a vaccine, don’t does not amount to spreading disinformation”.
Throughout the pandemic, concerns have been raised about the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 on digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Spotify is embroiled in controversy over its hosting of Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and led musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to remove their music from the audio streaming service .
A study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that anti-vaxxers earn at least $2.5 million a year from subscription-based newsletter platform Substack.
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Krystian Seibert, an industry fellow at the Center for Social Impact at Swinburne University of Technology, said the rules for crowdfunding platforms were confusing and unclear and needed reform.
“Different state and territory fundraising laws are an incoherent mess, a real dog’s breakfast, and that’s part of the problem,” he said.
However, Mr Seibert said vaccine mandates were a “live political issue” and people should be free to debate. “This includes not restricting fundraising activities associated with such activities, provided they comply with relevant fundraising and other laws.”