GoFundMe called to Canadian parliament after accusations that cash was used to fund antisemitism seen at Ottawa protests

A Canadian parliamentary committee is asking representatives of the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe to testify about how the company ensures that money raised is not used to promote antisemitism, white supremacy and other forms of hate. The demand was issued after it emerged that GoFundMe was used to raise more than C$10 million to support anti-vaccination protests that featured antisemitic tropes and white supremacy and which brought the Canadian capital, Ottawa, to a standstill.

Urged by British Columbia New Democrat MP Alistair MacGregor, the Public Safety Committee (PSC) is asking representatives of the crowd-funding website to answer questions about how its funds were allegedly used to promote hate. GoFundMe announced that it was “reviewing” the anti-vaccination fundraising campaign to ensure that it complied with its terms of service and is understood to have frozen funds to protestors in the meantime.

Mr MacGregor said that he was concerned about “the anonymity of some donors” and what controls GoFundMe had to ensure that the money was not funding “extremist views like antisemitism, white supremacy and other forms of hate” that were “prominently” seen in the Ottawa protests.

The MP said that Canada must subject GoFundMe to “a closer examination,” as the “prime motivation” and “endgame” of its “anonymous donors” were not known. Their aims were unknown “and that’s a very real, big problem,” said Mr MacGregor.

In its statement, GoFundMe said that it had requested more information from the organiser regarding the use of funds. Tamara Lich, one of the protest organisers, said that the crowd-funding company had been given all the information that it sought and was confident that the suspension would be lifted. In the meantime, the controversial social media platform Gab, which is popular with the far-right, has provided links to cryptocurrency websites as a way to keep donations flowing during GoFundMe’s suspension of fundraising.

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