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GoFundMe Bans Anti-Vaccine Campaigns (slashgear.com)

An anonymous reader quotes SlashGear: Crowdfunding platform GoFundMe has banned campaigns that seek funds for spreading misinformation related to vaccines, the company has revealed. The platform has been used in the past by anti-vaxxers as part of their mission to promote conspiracy theories related to supposed health issues caused by vaccinations. Current campaigns in violation of this new rule will be removed.

GoFundMe has previously faced controversy for allowing anti-vax campaigns on the platform, including late last year when a mother sought funds for a custody battle allegedly intending to, in part, prevent her kids from being vaccinated. An increasing number of tech companies have cracked down on anti-vaccination content, including Facebook and Pinterest, and now GoFundMe is among them.

14 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Full disclosure on vaccines by EnsilZah · · Score: 3

    Not sure where you're hanging out, but I've yet to see a person jonesing for a dose of weakened measles virus.

  2. Re: Wrong move by reanjr · · Score: 2

    Just put all the non-vaccinated kids in the same class. Let biology work its magic.

  3. Legal activities should not be blocked by magzteel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think anti-vaxers are misguided but being misguided is not illegal, and neither is their opinion.

    This new trend of blocking things some people disagree with is just wrong,

    1. Re:Legal activities should not be blocked by Patent+Lover · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Blocking shit that gets children killed is ok by me. If these idiots need money they should find their own site.

    2. Re:Legal activities should not be blocked by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      This new trend of blocking things some people disagree with is just wrong.

      So you won't mind if I put my 10-foot tall sign saying you have anal sex with sheep on your front lawn?

      There is nothing wrong with blocking messages you disagree with. The world is not your toilet bowl. Government must not hinder speech (unless it breaks the law) but it's time you all learned the difference between public and private. Gofundme is not the government. They don't owe you a goddamn thing.

      And no, I don't care if some god-bothering jackoff doesn't want to make a gay wedding cake. Go for it, Cletus. Turn away all the customers you want.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:Legal activities should not be blocked by mhotchin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They are *NOT* misguided. There is simply too much easily available, high quality information on the risks, the benefits and the working of vaccines.

      These people are *wilfully ignorant*, and their actions put *other people* in danger.

      If anti-vaxxers only risked themselves, no one would care. It would just be a particularly stupid pastime for them. Instead, anti-vaxxer *children* are first in harm's way, and right after that is basically "everyone with a compromised immune system".

      They can continue to spew their stupidity if they want, but the rest of us sane people are perfectly justified in pressuring companies to kick that shit off their sites.

    4. Re:Legal activities should not be blocked by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

      This new trend of blocking things that reality disagrees with is just wrong,

      FTFY. If you are promoting information that is factually incorrect then it should be blocked for the benefit of society. Sorry, not sorry.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    5. Re:Legal activities should not be blocked by magzteel · · Score: 2

      So you won't mind if I put my 10-foot tall sign saying you have anal sex with sheep on your front lawn?.

      Why do your fantasies all seem to involve farm animals?

    6. Re: Legal activities should not be blocked by GrumpySteen · · Score: 2

      About 6,000 kids per year died of the measles when the deaths first started being tracked in 1812, before vaccines made it a relatively rare disease.

      Even with better medical care in the 50s, 48,000 people were hospitalized every year from the measles and 400-500 died.

      If you want to see unvaccinated kids who died of the measles, grab a shovel and go to a graveyard that was around before the vaccine became available in 1963. There are plenty.

    7. Re:Legal activities should not be blocked by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      This is a private company, they can block what they want. There isn't a universal block here. The company can ban porn on their forums if they like but that's not the same thing as banning porn everywhere.

    8. Re:Legal activities should not be blocked by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why do your fantasies all seem to involve farm animals?

      To be honest, it goes way back. It all started when your Mom asked me to dress up like Old MacDonald.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. Re:Polarization is making this worse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    re: what you said about pro-vaxxers, the reason they're not over the counter is because while safe it doesn't mean any fool should be able to administer them any time either

    (btw being OTC has little bearing on overall safety, just take Tylenol, that stuff is basically poison)

    pro-pharma shills? I mean seriously, such profits as pharma makes from childhood vaccinations are so tiny as to be less than a rounding error. The total revenue, so before profits, world-wide, of childhood vaccinations is less than 1% of total pharma revenue

    the short version there are plenty of reasons to hate on pharma but vaccinations ain't one of them

    now on the other hand, I haven't heard of a single case of a pro-vaxxer making death threats against an anti-vaxxer but there are loads of instances of the reverse, so the reason anti-vaxxers get treated like crazies is because a whole lot of them are acting like crazies, maybe it's a minority, but you associate with nuts, you get labeled a nut too

  5. Re:Please don't by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    Sorry, we replaced evolution with civilization and would try to save their dying spawn. With my tax money, too.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  6. Re:But my freespeech! by ilsaloving · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or people who don't have any understanding of what free speech actually means.

    Even if we completely disregard the details of what "Free Speech" actually means and go by the definition that you are employing, there is not one "freedom" that is unlimited. Not. A. Single. One.

    Last I checked, it's still illegal to scream "Fire!" in a crowded theatre, for example. Incitement to riot is another. Or libel laws.

    These anti-vaxxers are no different, IMO. They are deliberately spreading misinformation, and that misinformation is directly responsible for people either dying or the next best thing to it, from diseases that were declared eradicated for decades. If it was the anti-vaxxers themselves that were killing themselves off, then I'd have no problem with this. But they're not. They're injuring completely unrelated people.

    If you think it's acceptable for this to happen, then you must also agree that all existing laws that restrict any form of speech should not exist. People should be free to scream "Fire" in a crowded theatre. It should be legal to publicly and prominently lie about basically anything. Hell, It should be legal for companies to falsify their quarterly reports, because otherwise you'd be denying them the right to "free speech".

    But I'll say it again since you and presumably others seem unable to understand this basic concept:

    Free speech does exactly one thing: It protects you from criticizing the government. That's it. It does NOT give you a divine right to say whatever idiot thing pops into your head, without any repercussions from other people.

    Please don't make me pull out the XKCD reference.