A GoFundMe campaign started to raise funds for Michael Slager, the South Carolina ex-cop charged with the murder of Walter Scott, was taken down for violating the crowdfunding website’s Terms and Conditions on April 8th.
Shortly after it was removed, the organizers took to Indiegogo instead. At the time of writing, the campaign has managed to raise $546 of the $5,000 goal in one day.
A frustrating recent trend has emerged where crowdfunding campaigns appear shortly after any controversial event on the media, as if to play devil’s advocate. The circumstances of the Slager fund harkens back to Memories Pizza’s recent windfall, a result of the negative attention they received for a video in which they publicly stated that they would refuse to cater same-sex weddings. In just one week, the campaign—hosted on GoFundMe—managed to raise $842,442 of its $200,000 goal.
GoFundMe’s Terms and Conditions includes a lengthy list of causes for which campaigns cannot be started, one of which includes “campaigns in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful, or sexual acts.”
Indiegogo takes a different stance to the sorts of campaigns it hosts. They told ThinkProgress:
“Indiegogo allows anyone, anywhere to fund ideas that matter to them and just like other open platforms — such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter — we don’t judge the content of campaigns as long as they are in compliance with our Terms of Use.”
Crowdfunding began as a way to consolidate support for a good idea that lacked a solid platform. Campaigns like the one for Slager and Memories Pizza, however, sends the unfavorable message that any publicity—good or bad—will pay out in the end.
