GoFundMe pulls antivaccine campaigns from platform
The company says promoting misinformation violates its terms of service.
- She received the Renau Writing Scholarship in 2016 from the University of Louisville's communication department.
GoFundMe, a popular crowdfunding platform, is the latest to denounce the antivaccination movement.
"Campaigns raising money to promote misinformation about vaccines violate GoFundMe's terms of service and will be removed from the platform," the company said on Friday. The Daily Beast earlier reported the change.
GoFundMe said antivaccination misinformation campaigns are extremely rare.
"Currently, we've removed fewer than 10 campaigns. We are conducting a thorough review and removing any campaigns currently on the platform," the company said.
The battle to stop the spread of misinformation about vaccines is waging online, including on Facebook , YouTube, Google, Pinterest, Amazon and Twitter. Last week, the American Medical Association sent a letter to the chief executives of the companies addressing concerns about antivaccine messages. The AMA said the tech giants should do their part to ensure consumers could access scientifically valid information about vaccinations. The organization also requested that the companies make public their plans to do so.
Earlier this month Facebook outlined steps to demote antivaccination groups or pages that spread inaccurate information in news feeds or search results. Facebook also said it wouldn't recommend the pages or groups in vaccination-related searches. The social network planned to defer to the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help spot falsehoods.
In February YouTube pulled ads that appear on channels featuring antivaccination content. The move came after some investors pulled out, not wanting to be associated with the discouraging of vaccinations.
