Fund off

Super-troll Milo Yiannopoulos financed by Gofundme in direct violation of company’s terms of service

You might be tempted to think of Gofundme as the friendly happy face of helpful crowdfunding endeavors. Got an art project, a sick pet, or a charity fundraiser? Gofundme can help! But apparently Gofundme can also help spread hate and harassment on college campuses, according to Sydney Brownstone at The Stranger.

You might remember 13-year-old idiot Milo Yiannopoulos from his role in directing Twitter to attack Leslie Jones; or his speech at the University of Delaware where he said “Never feel bad for mocking a transgender person.”

Setting aside whether Milo ever feels bad or just claims to never feel bad, the fact remains that his campus tour is hurting people. And it’s being paid for, in part, by Gofundme donations.

According to Gofundme’s terms of service, you can’t use the crowdfunding platform for “the promotion of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, terrorism, or intolerance of any kind relating to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases.”

And yet various groups have raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $14,000 to bring Yiannopoulos to their campus. (At one recent event, he projected a student’s face on screen and invited attendees to mock her.) Republicans at the University of Washington, who previously used the crowdfunding site to raise money for a model anti-immigrant wall, are close to rounding up $7,000 for Milo’s visit.

The whole situation stinks — someone is running around the country assuring college students that it’s a sign of strength to be insensitive to the pain of others. Gofundme could certainly put a stop to it — if they wanted to. Then again, they’re probably enjoying their 5% cut of the fundraising.

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