GoFundMe bans anti-vaxxers

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Anti-vaxxers have long used GoFundMe to raise money to spread their dangerous message—but now the site is cutting them off, The Daily Beast has learned.

“Campaigns raising money to promote misinformation about vaccines violate GoFundMe’s terms of service and will be removed from the platform,” spokesman Bobby Whithorne told The Daily Beast.

The U.S. anti-vax movement has been blamed for two outbreaks of measles that have infected some 300 people—mostly children—in New York and the Pacific Northwest.

Whithorne said such fundraisers were “extremely rare” and that the site had removed fewer than 10 campaigns so far.

The Daily Beast found fundraisers benefiting or promoted by anti-vaccination or “vaccine choice” groups brought in at least $170,000 in the last four years. They include:

Prominent anti-vax activist Larry Cook, who spent more money than anyone else boosting his message on Facebook and collected $79,900 on various GoFundMe campaigns.
A vaccine-exemption attorney’s legal defense fund, which raised $25,220, that was promoted by Health Freedom Idaho and Sarasota for Vaccine Choice.
Three campaigns promoted by A Voice for Choice’s Facebook page that raised $39,801.

Melissa Sullivan, executive vice president at Health Choice Connecticut, which raised $2,650 under its previous name, Vaccine Choice CT, said GoFundMe’s eviction was a “violation of the First Amendment” and suggested, without any supporting evidence, that the platform was “feeling pressure from Big Pharma.”

GoFundMe’s terms of service explicitly ban donations toward “products that make health claims that have not been approved or verified by the applicable local… or national regulatory body.”

Tara Smith, professor of epidemiology at Kent State University, praised GoFundMe’s ban, but said she suspects the anti-vax movement will find other ways to raise money and spread its message.

“I appreciate the initiative, but [this movement] fundraised before GoFundMe and I’m sure they will find other ways after their campaigns are removed,” she said. “I suspect they will just go back to sending mailers or back to newsletters online to solicit donations in other ways.”

Smith said she was not surprised by the amount of money donated to anti-vaxxer groups through the site.