GoFundMe Removes Anti-Vax Campaigns From its Platform | The Bay Area’s BIN 910

The online fundraising platform GoFundMe said Friday they were banning any campaigns created on their website that promoted “misinformation” about vaccines.

“Campaigns raising money to promote misinformation about vaccines violate GoFundMe’s terms of service and will be removed from the platform,” GoFundMe said. “We are conducting a thorough review and will remove any campaigns currently on the platform.”

The company’s terms of service say “products that make health claims that have not been approved or verified” will be prohibited.

According to an analysis by The Daily Beast, fundraisers that benefited or promoted anti-vaccination or “vaccine choice” groups raised at least $170,000 over the last four years on GoFundMe. Last week, the American Medical Association warned social media companies that they were aiding efforts to spread vaccine misinformation. A current outbreak of measles of 268 cases across the United States is being blamed on the anti-vax movement. The measles cases are occurring due to “U.S. communities with pockets of unvaccinated people,” the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

GoFundMe is the latest online platform to crack down on the spread of misinformation about vaccines. Last week, Facebook announced they would lower the rankings of groups and pages that are reportedly spreading misinformation about vaccinations in the News Feed and Search options. Amazon and Pinterest have made similar moves to prevent the spread of misinformation about vaccines.

The CDC says getting your child vaccinated is important because the vaccines “protect children by working with their body’s natural defenses to help them safely develop immunity to serious diseases” like Measles, Rubella and more.

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