B.o.B’s $1 million flat Earth conspiracy satellite GoFundMe is a scam
Musician B.o.B has started a GoFundMe campaign that’s looking to raise $1 million to “launch one, if not multiple, satellites into space,” toward the goal of “finding the curve.”
In other words: B.o.B would like you to give him a million dollars so that he can prove that the Earth is in fact round, and not, as B.o.B currently believes (despite the frankly impossibly overwhelming glut of evidence to the contrary) flat.
Flat Earth conspiracies aren’t a new thing for B.o.B. Last year, he got in a Twitter fight with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson over the “issue,” complete with competing diss tracks, because that’s just the kind of (round) world that we live in.
Obviously, this entire thing is completely ridiculous on almost every level. At the very best, it’s an attempt by a delusional man trying to foolishly prove something that has been extensively proven for the sake of his own ego. At the worst, it’s a scam by a washed-up one-hit wonder who is leveraging his mid-tier celebrity status for some quick cash and a few headlines with his name in it.
Either way, you shouldn’t donate to the campaign, for two main reasons:
1. GoFundMe doesn’t require B.o.B to hit goals or even do anything to get your money
B.o.B has cleverly gone with GoFundMe for his flat Earth satellite campaign, because, compared to services like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, GoFundMe is far, far more lax when it comes to scamming money from backers.
Unlike other crowdfunding sites, GoFundMe doesn’t require campaigns to reach their goal to give out the money. So while it’s unlikely that B.o.B will actually reach his $1 million goal, he gets all the money that people donate anyway — even if he never comes close to reaching the full amount.
Additionally, B.o.B doesn’t actually have to do anything with the money. GoFundMe only lists three things as “misuse” to the point where it will refund backers:
The campaign organizer doesn’t deliver funds to the intended beneficiary
The campaign description is intentionally misleading to donors
The campaign organizer or beneficiary is charged with a crime related to misrepresentations made in their campaign
So, unless B.o.B steals the money from himself, uses it to commit a crime, or misleads donors about what it’s for, he’s in the clear. GoFundMe works less as a crowdfunding site, and more as a digital tip jar. There’s no real accountability to make sure he uses the money for what he says, or has to prove or give back anything to his donors at all.
The only thing that might apply is the “intentionally misleading” clause, but B.o.B is being at least somewhat upfront about what he wants to do: launch satellites to “find the curve.” (Although he’s provided literally zero details as to how he’ll accomplish this.) Assuming B.o.B can show that he at least tried to put some satellites in space, he’s probably in the clear.
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Also, none of this accounts for the fact that viewing the curvature of the Earth is incredibly easy. You can basically do it with a GoPro and a weather balloon, as many enterprising physics students have proven on YouTube. You don’t need a million dollars. You just need a couple hundred bucks and a slightly boring Sunday afternoon.
2. The Earth is fucking round.
Update September 26th, 7:10PM ET: A GoFundMe spokesperson has released a statement regarding B.o.B’s campaign, announcing that, while the campaign does not currently violate the terms of service, the company is also temporarily placing the campaign on hold. That means that that B.o.B will be unable to withdraw the funds until he provides more information, and if he can’t, the funds will be refunded. The full statement is below.
“GoFundMe’s terms and conditions are available at gofundme.com/terms. We will remove any campaign that violates our terms, but GoFundMe is also an open platform, and ultimately it is up to the GoFundMe community to decide which campaigns to donate to. Although this campaign does not presently violate our terms of service, we have placed the campaign funds on hold while we work with the organizer to ensure funds are managed appropriately.”
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