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GoFundMe pauses donations to Canada truckers

24 points by version_five 5y ago

friendlydog 5y ago
With work from home it would be hard for the truckers to embargo GoFundMe headquarters. GFM has a history of collecting then freezing funds for causes which don't align. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1011 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1011
- throwawaysea 5y ago
  The fact that they collect them at all is what seems illegal to me. They know full well they don’t intend to pay these funds out when their politics disagree with the cause. So they’re soaking up the momentum of the movement and time of donors and then locking it away until it is irrelevant. It’s plain old political warfare.
mikece 5y ago
What are the legal grounds to sue GoFundMe for even allowing this donation drive? This, btw, is a great reason to look at Bitcoin as a means of raising money for a cause, even if the point is to swap the BTC for local fiat and not to hold long term: BTC cannot be deplatformed short of making it illegal to exchange BTC for CAD.
rvz 5y ago
And that's why donating using cryptocurrencies and stablecoins is still going to be a thing that will not being going away anytime soon. So please, continue to ban more users, and they will just turn to that.
- andrewclunn 5y ago
  Sometimes somebody else said it best: http://stonetoss.com/comic/build-big/ http://stonetoss.com/comic/build-big/
tamaharbor 5y ago
Will they be refunding money for the BLM and other similar donation drives?
- josephcsible 5y ago
  Why would they be? The terms of service make it perfectly clear that those are okay but this isn't: "Donations that are political in nature are only allowed if they're in alignment with our own political viewpoint". (/s, in case it wasn't obvious)
copperwater69 5y ago
I wish there was a massive truck blockade here in Australia to remove vaccine mandates and passports - which they lambasted as conspiracy theories early in the pandemic. I can't leave the country because I'm unvaccinated, can't board domestic flights, get my hair cut or go to weddings with more than 20 people because I refuse to take an experimental vaccine.
- throwawaymanbot 5y ago
- nyokodo 5y ago
  > because I refuse to take an experimental vaccine. You might elicit sympathy for your plight if you had lab confirmed robust preexisting natural immunity which was being ignored, or you were a young man at great risk of myo/pericarditis, or severely allergic to vaccine ingredients. However, as you merely stated an obvious falsehood, that the vaccines are experimental, you get no sympathy from me. What do you think you’re going to discover that the ~100,000 phase I-III test subjects and billions of people who already got vaccinated haven’t already discovered?
  - copperwater69 5y ago
    I don't need your sympathy I want my human rights recognised and respected by the state legislators which have exempted themselves from taking this experimental vaccine
    - nyokodo 5y ago
      > I don't need your sympathy But you do need the sympathy or at least respect of the Australian electorate and by asserting obvious nonsense to the vast majority all you’re doing is empowering your opponents.
      - johng 5y ago
        If his legislators can exempt themselves, he should be afforded the same treatment. Do as I say not as I do isn't really a good political policy?
throwawaymanbot 5y ago
throwawaysea 5y ago
Note that the government has actually likely pressured GoFundMe in this case, which is a chilling and tyrannical suppression of the right to protest, especially after how accommodating they were with mass rioting in 2020. See https://www.foxnews.com/world/canadian-leader-deletes-tweet-saying-hell-target-freedom-trucker-convoys-gofundme-donations https://www.foxnews.com/world/canadian-leader-deletes-tweet-... or https://www.newsweek.com/truckers-protesting-covid-rules-has-gofundme-halted-after-millions-raised-1675825 https://www.newsweek.com/truckers-protesting-covid-rules-has... > On Wednesday, before the fundraiser was suspended, city councilor and chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board Diane Deans said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson should contact GoFundMe and tell them to not distributed the money raised to the protesters.

24 points by version_five 5y ago

With work from home it would be hard for the truckers to embargo GoFundMe headquarters. GFM has a history of collecting then freezing funds for causes which don't align. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1011 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1011

throwawaysea 5y ago
The fact that they collect them at all is what seems illegal to me. They know full well they don’t intend to pay these funds out when their politics disagree with the cause. So they’re soaking up the momentum of the movement and time of donors and then locking it away until it is irrelevant. It’s plain old political warfare.

mikece 5y ago

What are the legal grounds to sue GoFundMe for even allowing this donation drive? This, btw, is a great reason to look at Bitcoin as a means of raising money for a cause, even if the point is to swap the BTC for local fiat and not to hold long term: BTC cannot be deplatformed short of making it illegal to exchange BTC for CAD.

rvz 5y ago

And that's why donating using cryptocurrencies and stablecoins is still going to be a thing that will not being going away anytime soon. So please, continue to ban more users, and they will just turn to that.

andrewclunn 5y ago
Sometimes somebody else said it best: http://stonetoss.com/comic/build-big/ http://stonetoss.com/comic/build-big/

tamaharbor 5y ago

Will they be refunding money for the BLM and other similar donation drives?

josephcsible 5y ago
Why would they be? The terms of service make it perfectly clear that those are okay but this isn't: "Donations that are political in nature are only allowed if they're in alignment with our own political viewpoint". (/s, in case it wasn't obvious)

copperwater69 5y ago

I wish there was a massive truck blockade here in Australia to remove vaccine mandates and passports - which they lambasted as conspiracy theories early in the pandemic. I can't leave the country because I'm unvaccinated, can't board domestic flights, get my hair cut or go to weddings with more than 20 people because I refuse to take an experimental vaccine.

throwawaymanbot 5y ago
nyokodo 5y ago
> because I refuse to take an experimental vaccine. You might elicit sympathy for your plight if you had lab confirmed robust preexisting natural immunity which was being ignored, or you were a young man at great risk of myo/pericarditis, or severely allergic to vaccine ingredients. However, as you merely stated an obvious falsehood, that the vaccines are experimental, you get no sympathy from me. What do you think you’re going to discover that the ~100,000 phase I-III test subjects and billions of people who already got vaccinated haven’t already discovered?
- copperwater69 5y ago
  I don't need your sympathy I want my human rights recognised and respected by the state legislators which have exempted themselves from taking this experimental vaccine
  - nyokodo 5y ago
    > I don't need your sympathy But you do need the sympathy or at least respect of the Australian electorate and by asserting obvious nonsense to the vast majority all you’re doing is empowering your opponents.
    - johng 5y ago
      If his legislators can exempt themselves, he should be afforded the same treatment. Do as I say not as I do isn't really a good political policy?

throwawaymanbot 5y ago

throwawaysea 5y ago

Note that the government has actually likely pressured GoFundMe in this case, which is a chilling and tyrannical suppression of the right to protest, especially after how accommodating they were with mass rioting in 2020. See https://www.foxnews.com/world/canadian-leader-deletes-tweet-saying-hell-target-freedom-trucker-convoys-gofundme-donations https://www.foxnews.com/world/canadian-leader-deletes-tweet-... or https://www.newsweek.com/truckers-protesting-covid-rules-has-gofundme-halted-after-millions-raised-1675825 https://www.newsweek.com/truckers-protesting-covid-rules-has... > On Wednesday, before the fundraiser was suspended, city councilor and chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board Diane Deans said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson should contact GoFundMe and tell them to not distributed the money raised to the protesters.