OUTRAGEOUS: GoFundMe Cancels Payout, Commits Canadian Freedom Convoy’s Funds To Other Charities

In a statement released Friday evening, the woke fundraising site GoFundMe announced it would not only be freezing the nearly $10 million raised in support of Canadians traveling to Ottawa, but would actually be deciding where else to disperse the money instead. That’s a lot of loonies.

Previously, this past Wednesday GoFundMe had “just” frozen the account to no longer accept additional donations. Now, though, not only will funds not be collected, but the money already raised won’t even make it to the cause of donors’ choosing. Instead, GoFundMe “will work with organizers to send all remaining funds to credible and established charities chosen by the Freedom Convoy 2022 organizers.” Maybe those causes are worthy and in line with the values of the truck drivers, Canadian patriots, and general lovers of liberty, but regardless none of that will be up to the vast number of financial supporters now.

Amazingly, there won’t simply be immediate refunds to all of the original donors. Instead, a caveat was included in the single final sentence that “all donors may submit a request for a full refund.” How many will notice or go through with that? No doubt, a fair question to ask would be why all of the funds aren’t immediately redistributed if the account was discredited, frozen, and shut down. 

A review of the refund policy makes it clear that charity fundraising is held to a different standard than personal fundraisers. Still, that policy is not set in stone. For example, here is the language on refunds and charitable donations:

“Charity donations are typically non-refundable. This is because donations are typically irrevocable and undesignated contributions, and there may be tax implications for the charity and/or donor as a result of refunds.” 

The operative word ought to be ‘typically.’ Charitable donations are typically non-refundable. It doesn’t say it’s impossible or not ever done. It says typically. In this case, since it wasn’t the decision of Freedom Convoy 2022 to dismantle, how is this not an acceptable exception? GoFundMe could make things easier if it wanted to. It just doesn’t want to help the type of people supporting the fringe white supremacists honking in the Ottawa streets.

In making this capricious judgment, like social media tech giants GoFundMe is hiding behind its arbitrary community guidelines and/or terms of service. According to Term 8, the site “prohibits the promotion of violence and harassment.” To be clear, no actual violence or harassment was cited in the issuance of its verdict beyond claiming that law enforcement now calls the protest an occupation. This is vaguely reminiscent of the circular discussion at the State Department the other day when a journalist asked for evidence of a claim, and in reply the spokesperson said he had just given it to him. So statements alleging evidence are now evidence? What a world.

One has to wonder, too, if Term 8 was established after Antifa laid siege to Seattle and occupied stolen lands in the middle of the downtown area. The Post Millennial reported at the time that Antifa elements started a GoFundMe to replace stolen guns in Chaz. (Full disclosure: I wasn’t able to verify whether the page was allowed to stay up or for how long.) This would obviously represent a gigantic conflict of interest if peaceful Canadians were demonetized and violent criminals were enabled to purchase new weapons.

In any event, the George Floyd Riots were heavily destructive and deadly, and yet they still have an active account on GoFundMe. For proof of GoFundMe’s sponsorship of violence and harassment (against its own terms, mind you), one need only to other searches for other GoFundMe accounts that popped up for individuals like an old disabled lady in the Minneapolis area who established an account after rioting and looting ended her life or small businesses like a Minnesota bar that raised significant money after its building got ruined by thugs and goons.

The lesson, as always, is that GoFundMe and the woke left are not taking a principled stand. They are merely playing politics in pursuit of power and silencing critics.

UPDATE: As a result of overwhelming outrage, GoFundMe has since issued a new response. A win for freedom! (And ironically, the result of protesting…the very peaceful protesting they cited to close the account in the first place.)

The update we issued earlier enabled all donors to get a refund and outlined a plan to distribute remaining funds to verified charities selected by the Freedom Convoy organizers. However, due to donor feedback, we are simplifying the process and automatically refunding donations.

— GoFundMe (@gofundme) February 5, 2022