GoFundMe Seizes Money from Donors to Canadian Truckers, Says They’re Giving It to Charity

GoFundMe has deplatformed a lot of people over the years. They’ve canceled funds with millions of dollars in them before.

But they always just refund the money to whoever sent it.

Saying “actually, we’re keeping this” is new.

RT:

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Ohio AG Dave Yost have urged citizens who donated to the anti-vaccine mandate ‘Freedom Convoy’ in Canada to come forward, after crowdfunding site GoFundMe seized nearly $8 million in donations. Morrisey says the platform engaged in “deceptive” practices.

“In [West Virginia], organizations must not deceive donors and engage in deceptive advertising practices,” Morrisey, a Republican, tweeted on Friday night. “If you’ve been victimized by a deceptive act or practice, let us know!”

Ohio’s Dave Yost, also a Republican, issued a similar statement on Saturday morning, instructing duped donors to file a complaint on his website.

It is still unclear what kind of legal action, if any, the AGs are preparing to take.

The ‘Freedom Convoy’, a group of truckers who have clogged up roads in the Canadian capital, Ottawa for a week now, had raised $7,964,141, before GoFundMe shut down their fundraiser on Friday. The decision was seemingly made at the behest of Ottawa’s police department, which thanked the company for “listening to our concerns as a City and a police service.”

GoFundMe announced that unless donors request refunds, the site will distribute the seven-figure sum to “credible and established charities.” Even though the truckers confirmed that “funds would be used only for participants who traveled to Ottawa to participate in a peaceful protest,” the crowdfunding platform justified its decision by saying that the protest has become an “occupation” of the Canadian capital.

Maybe they’re legally covering their asses by saying “well, if someone requests a refund, we’ll send it.” But that is just bullshit. Obviously, everyone wants a refund. No one doesn’t want a refund. If they wanted to give money to a charity that GoFundMe chooses, they would have sent money to a GoFundMe charity fund.

I suspect that it will be very hard to request the money be returned, and they probably already banned the accounts of people who made the donations, so they will then have to go through some difficult process of trying to prove their identity.

In any normal country, the people at GoFundMe would be prosecuted for fraud and sent to prison for this.

But I don’t think anything will happen.