GoFundMe’s suspension of millions to support protesting truckers in Canada shocked many, particularly when the company initially announced its intention to distribute the money to other charities. It was less of a surprise for those of us who have criticized the company for years over its use of the platform to target and block funds for conservative and libertarian causes. Indeed, the company has revised an old practice known as the “Nag’s Head light” in luring the unsuspecting into what has become a liberal lockbox on funds.
In the Carolinas, locals would sometimes tie a lantern under the head of a horse to lure ships to their doom. Thinking the light was a ship in deep water, the ships would unwittingly sail into the shore rocks where they would be stripped of their cargo. That is how the resort town Nag’s Head, North Carolina got its name.
GoFundMe is the ultimate Nag’s Head operation. It draws conservative and libertarian causes to its shore with promise of being a neutral crowdfunding site. At its creation, the founders pledged to change the world by “disrupting giving” by handing control to average people in supporting others with common values and views.
The easy-to-use technology and need for crowdfunding services quickly expanded the company into a multibillion enterprise. However, it soon became clear that the company was using its control of funds to advance its own political agenda. Worse yet, the company effectively coaxing groups into fundraising campaigns on its site, only to freeze accounts before the money could be used.
In the case of the Canadian truckers protesting Covid mandate, the company perfectly replicated the Nag’s Head Light. It allowed people to donate over $10 million, thinking that they were helping the truckers and presumably not donating to other sites. It then suspended the account and announced that it would distribute the money to other charities in consultation with the truckers. Once the ships crashed on its rocks, it was literally going to salvage the wreckage.
The announcement was breathtakingly moronic and led some to call for criminal investigations. It turns out that soliciting funds for one reason and then using them for another (“better”) cause is considered fraud in some circles. The company quickly backtracked. However, it still refused to allow the donations to go to the truckers. It will return the money. In the meantime, critical time and support has been lost for those who trusted the company.
It is a familiar pattern for the company in allowing people to send money for badly needed support only to lock the funds away at the last minute. The company’s record has moved it well beyond any plausible deniability that it is not using access to donations as a way of advancing its own priorities.
Consider GoFundMe’s freezing of funds for legal defense funds. One would think that funding litigation costs would be unassailable since it is an effort to secure judicial review of the underlying merits of a case or a cause. After all, if a cause is based on disinformation, a court can quickly sort out the truth. Right? Wrong.
GoFundMe froze donations needed to support Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal defense because he was accused of a violent crime. However, that is the point of a trial. He was accused of a crime and he was entitled to a presumption of innocence. However, the media ran false accounts of the story while social media companies like TikTok censored pro-Rittenhouse material. One police officer was fired for simply donating to Rittenhouse anonymously on GoFundMe. Neither the company nor the media came to the defense of Norfolk Police Officer William Kelly. Rittenhouse was, of course, acquitted. Then GoFundMe released the funds after they were no longer needed to support his trial.
The company also suspended litigation funds for accused police officers as well as parents who sought to challenge vaccinate mandates in courts.
When the company blocked the distribution of donations to Rittenhouse, it declared “GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit raising money for the legal defense of an alleged violent crime.” It is a ridiculous policy since defendants have a presumption of innocence and we should all parties being able to present their best cases before independent judges. That includes Canadian truckers, Black Lives Matter, Antifa and other groups facing litigation. Moreover, critics have noted that the company has supported legal funds supporting rioters in various cities as well as an appeal for the 2020 Seattle Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP.)
The hypocrisy of the company on such issues has been flagged repeatedly, including by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
It does not matter. Like the social media companies, GoFundMe controls billions in funds and has become the very scourge that it was designed to combat. Rather than empower average people, it now operates more like a corporate overlord on what causes are worthy of crowdfunding.
Notably, GoFundMe relied on accounts from the Canadian government to label the truckers as violent despite the fact that the truckers are protesting the government. The protests have been largely peaceful, particularly in comparison to the “mostly peaceful” protests in past summers (by groups allowed to crowdfund by the company). It is the same pattern used by other companies in serving as a conduit of government priorities and policies.
YouTube and Twitter have blocked critics of Putin or governments like India. Even the W.H.O. has supported such censorship to deal with what it now calls the “infodemic,” which includes criticism of itself. YouTube and Twitter have blocked critics of Putin or governments like India. In the United States, Democratic leaders (including President Joe Biden) have pushed for more corporate censorship on subjects ranging from global warming to gender issues to election integrity to vaccines.
The inclusion of GoFundMe in this increasingly united front is particularly chilling. As the Supreme Court has repeatedly held, money is a critical part of free speech. You speak through your donations and those funds then support further free speech and associations. As companies like Twitter actively silence dissenting voices, GoFundMe has served as a chokepoint for funds. The result is that many are finding it not only difficult to use social media to voice their views but to use crowdfunding to garner the support of like-minded people.
GoFundMe can clearly redefine itself as a progressive company. It has free speech rights like those who it is seeking to silence. Like many in the media, the company has largely written off half of the country. The problem of the company is when the crowd in its crowdfunding business goes somewhere else.
Seems to me if a bank did this to you, they would be in very serious trouble.
This establishes the Democrat left as the greatest fraudsters and bank robbers in the history of the world. They are robbing the largest bank, America.
Dear GOFUNDME,
I represent a demographic who will never, under any circumstances. give you money. I sincerely hope you go out of business. Fraud is so unbecoming in a site that claims to be merely the distributor of money where the customer wants.
Regards,
Old George
GoFundDonald has millions of givers.
An even bigger fraud is underway on gerrymandering. Red state judges are shooting down gerrymandering while blue state legislatures are going berserk with gerrymandering. Professor Turley has addressed this hypocrisy in his column on The Hill. Recommended reading, and I hope Darren posts it here.
Yes please let’s discuss gerrymandering. One of the right’s primary methods of maintaining minority rule.
Elvis
Yes please let’s discuss gerrymandering
Sure lets start with NYC. This is the “proper” look for legislative districts.
Nah let’s start with PA 7.
Turley: have you noticed that the only people who call you “Professor” are the Trumpsters? Does the implication that this signals that most of us have lost respect for you since you went on the Fox payroll penetrate your consciousness at all?
Natacha asks Turley:
“Does the implication that this signals that most of us have lost respect for you since you went on the Fox payroll penetrate your consciousness at all?”
Qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent.
GoFundMe can clearly redefine itself as a progressive company. It has free speech rights like those who it is seeking to silence.
If only they would simply define themselves. But they are forced to lie, to stay in business. T
Forced to lie to advance their agenda. That is the line, leftists are force to abide.
Leftist cannot honestly outline their desires.
The more their agenda driven activities are exposed, the more difficult it will be for them to assume a benign façade. We need to keep up the pressure on every fraud they commit.
Regarding the call by some in government to increase censorship; If the government rejects transparency, there is a high probability that they are hiding something nefarious.
Pharma and medical device companies are required by law to disclose any gift given to a medical provider. This includes things like coffee, bagels, lunch, or honorariums. The public can access this information through sites such as ProPublica and OpenPayments. It would be instructive to have such transparency with politicians, large corporations and lobbyists. A high ranking politician or staff member who knows the ropes is a valuable asset to a country or large corporation in knowing how to navigate the labyrinth of government regulations. The knowledgeable politician or staff (or their “consulting” firms) are recruited to guide their clients in how to get things done in Washington while they accept large fees for services rendered.
I wonder if the Schoolhouse Rock “I’m a Bill” song and video should be rewritten for the 21st Century?
If the rank and file American citizen were able pull back the curtains, to see the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, they would be breathless in disgust.
. It would be instructive to have such transparency with politicians, large corporations and lobbyists.
Honorariums , vacations, attached to “summits”, etc. are small pocket change as compared to the real money.
The $millions are in US aide. That aide has to be distributed. NGO’s are were that starts and the down line agencies that get those #millions of aide into the intended hands. Politicians have their families and friends salted all through the $trillions of aid handed out by the govt. So when Senator moneybags approves that aid package, the routing of some of that aide has already been funneled to the NGO’s and Agencies he has financial kickbacks with.
Thanks for the info
Terrific column, JT. “Nag’s Head operation” — Great metaphor.
Glad to see you airing out your grievances against GoFundMe’s issues with the Canadian truckers — even though Fishsticks likely put you up to it, Jon. I loved how in depth your coverage of the Trump re-election campaigns systematic over charging of donaters was…, oh wait, that wasn’t you??? My bad!
E.
Also, due to your love of tactical censorship, your words on free speech are largely insanely laughable. But your ability to harumph it out for your Fox loving base is laudable. Consider me entertained!
B.
Someone on this site quoted the great Eric Hoffer last week, who once said “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” I’m going to add someone else’s quote. I wasn’t around when former Communist leader Nikita Khruschev famously said, “We will take America without firing a single shot…we will destroy you from within.” (1956?).
I know this may sound severe, but I often think of those words when stories/articles like this one about GoFundMe (thank you to the good professor) are (rarely) published. Instead, I see the gradual, insidious, metastasizing, and sub-surface “messaging” that is taking over in our great country, -as though one side of political ideology has adopted and incorporated Krushchev’s statement as its own Manifesto/credo.
The initially-subtle presentation of GoFundMe as a flagship for the 21st-century’s burgeoning crowdfunding industry, -so prodigious and honorable in its altruistic mission and effort, now shows its underbelly to the world. It joins the plethora of other efforts to control mom-and-pop mainstream media, academia, Internet search engines (Google) and resource sites (Wikipedia), and the very predictable focus/messaging behind protests..even commenters on this blog site, who seek to caste doubt on the very hand that feeds them.
Well, they (Big Tech, the left) said, “You dont like our rules! Make your own platform!”
And they did.
And they are going to continue to do so.
Two Americas are emerging, and the two shall never meet.
As another regular poster here states, “I want a divorce!”
We just might be getting that.
UpstateFarmer says:
“Two Americas are emerging, and the two shall never meet.
As another regular poster here states, “I want a divorce!” We just might be getting that.”
Perhaps, but the question is who gets to keep the house, the White House. The man of the house, i.e., the Trumpists, typically move out. I think you might be very happy settling in Whitefish, Montana or becoming an ex-pat in Tucker Carlson’s favorite foreign country Orban’s Hungary!
jeffsilberman, Whitefish, MT, is upscaling. He’ll be happier in Pest, across the river from Buda.
David,
As I have, you must have visited Budapest in order to have made that clever remark. It’s true that the elite live on top in Buda. I have not been there since Orban took over. I prefer Moldova.
Pest is quite nice. I don’t know why you think otherwise.
They are looting, from the streets to the white house, LOOTERS
Just waiting for some s@@tlib to explain why allowing funding for the BLM “mostly peaceful protesters” is ok but funding for Kyle Rittenhouse or the truckers was not.
Since s@@tlibs possess higher intelligence and are morally superior to deplorables such as me, I suspect the answers will be quite interesting.
antonio
Glad you’re an appreciator of intelligence!!!
Thank you. Thank you very much.
I’m sure this sounds like a broken record by now, but . . . this was evident well over a decade ago with Silicon Valley, and many were too busy watching their stock options to care. Alas, research is anathema to most of us Americans, as is foresight, and greed, well, greed is greed.
Also once again, Obama met with SV leaders weekly for breakfast and had Google set up shop IN the White House during his last term. Those folks hold all kinds of internal jobs now. How much bigger a warning does the West require?
These guys have always been modern day robber barons, right from the start. And they are almost without exception ‘white and privileged’ in the *literal* sense. Does not mean they are of exceptional character or intelligence. There’s a reason they called the 20 year-old now film about them, ‘Pirates of Silicon Valley’. Ahoy, Matey.
“. . . modern day robber barons . . .”
That is a Marxist description, intended to blur the distinction between wealth by looting and wealth by production.
There are alternative sites to GFM like Give Send Go. Never, ever, never use GFM. And look closely at any funding site’s terms of service and history of distribution of funds before establishing an account for a cause.
This: NO ONE bothers to read terms of service and they had better start. This stuff is always spelled out in TOS for legal reasons, and the terms of the majority if online companies would make people reel in disgust if asked the same by brick and mortar companies. Read the TOS! Every time! Because 9/10, that company’s butt is covered by it.
Yet the Democrats ask “why is the working class leaving us to go vote for Republicans”. The left has become east coast elites, media, tech, Hollywood billionaires, teachers unions, trans activists, illegals and those that will not work as the right has become the party of workers, parents, supporters of our border, Blacks, Latinos and and people that have been Democrats for generations.
Ask yourself why Fox News in the evening is beating the other channels among young… DEMOCRATS! Students that are against vaccine mandates and mask mandates are seeing who is in their corner. Workers watch as the border is overrun. People watched as the country burned for an entire year and all the elites want to talk about is one riot, albeit an horrific riot, but not any worse than those that burned police stations and courthouses. The people see Twitter ban conservatives as they allow Iranian Mullahs to opine. They see GoFundME allow CHOP to raise money as they ban the truckers. They see January 6th rioters remain in prison as Kamala Harris raises bail for other rioters. They see students being told they will be charged with trespassing and arrested as they see local DAs change ARMED RIBBERY to a MISDEMEANOR. They see the left try to take down Joe Rogan rather than just CHANGING THE CHANNEL. They see “misinformation” becoming the Trojan Horse of CENSORSHIP and they don’t like it.
We can’t boycott Google, Twitter, Netflix Facebook, YouTube, the NFL, Hollywood etc etc and it is very frustrating, but we can still vote and vote we will in November.
A post full of demonstrable lies.
E represents b
I line up a ton of points and Anonymous says, “you’re wrong” with no actual rebuttal.
It’s because your collection of lies is so vast. Pick one of your favorites and we’ll research it outside the alt right realm, and basically prove your complete gullibility.
Elvis
At last count, nine likes to zero. I think the burden of proof is on Elvis.
Just because hullbobby lies rapidly in succession puts no burden of proof on me. He can’t back up any of his claims.
Elvis
Wrong. Your response is a conclusion without laying out the foundational facts that support the conclusion. As such, it is not an argument against what Hullhobby wrote, nor is it proof against the facts laid out by Hullhobby. Lay the foundational facts for your conclusion.
You know you hit a sore spot with Anonymous when his argument against you is a conclusion, “A post full of demonstrable lies,” without providing the facts that would support his “demonstrable lie.”
Hullbobby complains:
“I line up a ton of points and Anonymous says, “you’re wrong” with no actual rebuttal.”
Welcome to my world! Now you know how it feels to be a NeverTrumper on this blog….
But, Jeff, you don’t “line up a ton of points.” Instead, you run away without providing any points. You keep telling us that Trump is the worst liar, but when asked to submit Trump lies of significance while he was President, you refuse to do so.
Hullbobby says:
“They see the left try to take down Joe Rogan rather than just CHANGING THE CHANNEL.”
Rogan and Spotify did the right thing. Rogan profusely apologized and promised to act more RESPONSIBLY, and Spotify removed the episodes conveying misinformation and racist slurs:
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/70-episodes-of-joe-rogans-podcast-vanish-from-spotify-as-new-controversy-emerges/
Shame works!
Rogan did what was in his perceived best interests. Spotify censored based on political rather than factual interests. It is amazing, you graduated from law school without figuring this out.
I even passed the bar on my 5th try!
The point is that Rogan agreed with his critics and abjectly apologized for his bad speech, and Spotify rejected Turley’s advice not to censor misinformation and removed harmful and racist episodes.
“I even passed the bar on my 5th try!”
That is probably true if you passed it.
“The point is that Rogan agreed with his critics”
You don’t know that, nor do you know whether or not Spotify removed true things. You talk without knowledge, logic or intelligence. Dartmouth must have owed your parents a lot.
Giving money to any charity often means that you are giving money to individuals who work for the charity. So. If you want to support the dogs at a pet foundation deliver dog food in bags that are not saleable if the employee takes it to a retail place and gets money.
Same at church. Take food not money for the downtrodden.
Lefties love censorship; when it is conservatives being censored.
Listen to them squeal when they are squeezed.
I love the irony of the Canadian “elites” attacking truckers.
Those truckers are the “working class”, the supposed beneficiaries of leftist policies. But the left is redefining “workers” as politicians, journalists, and “people of color”, whether they work or not.
Ugly people.
Monument says of Liberals:
“Ugly people.”
Why do you hate?
Time for someone to set up an alternative and then let the market decide
This is a job for MAGA!
This is a job for MAGATS.
FIFY
Thank you. Thank you very much.
GiveSendGo Has $2 million raised for the truckers already:
https://www.newsweek.com/freedom-convoy-raises-2m-givesendgo-after-gofundme-removes-campaign-canada-truckers-1676591
I agree, Whig, but we need to go further. In the case of GoFundMe, there is at least a preponderance of evidence that GoFundMe deliberately defrauded causes of their funding at critical moments. GoFundMe executives should be prosecuted and sued for a whole lot of reasons. I’m sure those slime will use other people’s money for their own defense, but nobody will want to take CEO Tim Cadogan’s place in the prison shower.
When woke CEO’s start facing criminal penalties for violating the rights of others, the rest will back off like they touched a hot stove. Woke corporations are just a way for the rich to get the woke off their backs or to suck up to Beijing. Those same execs need to start suffering for their corrupt, cruel, and cynical decisions.
In the meantime, Mr. Cadogan should finally be honest and rebrand his company as “GoF***Me, Inc.”