Crowdfunding platform GoFundMe took down a fundraising page aimed at collecting legal fees for litigation against vaccine mandates. The page was created by a nurse who was fired for refusing to comply with the vaccine mandate at her former workplace.
GoFundMe was once a neutral platform, allowing people to support others with similar interests. But it has since changed course and now, like mainstream social media platforms, decides what it will let people raise funds for.
The platform removed the fundraising page for litigation to fight a vaccine mandate by Houston Methodist. The campaign was started by Jennifer Bridges, a former nurse at Houston Methodist in April. Bridges and others who refused to comply with the vaccine mandate were fired in June. A court refused to stop the hospital from enforcing the vaccine mandate.
When the fundraiser was removed, it had raised more than $180,000.
“When our team initially reviewed the fundraiser, it was within our terms of service as the funds were for legal fees to fight vaccine mandates,” Heidi Hagberg, a spokesperson for GoFundMe, said in a statement to Business Insider. “The fundraiser has since been updated to include misinformation which violates our terms of service.”
In the subsequent review, GoFundMe took issue with the language in the fundraising page, which not only challenged the vaccine mandate but also the safety of the vaccines.
