{"id":403258,"date":"2019-04-17T09:13:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T08:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/discriminatory-censorship-gofundme-bans-anti-vaccine-crowdfunding-rt-usa-news\/"},"modified":"2019-04-17T09:13:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T08:13:14","slug":"discriminatory-censorship-gofundme-bans-anti-vaccine-crowdfunding-rt-usa-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/discriminatory-censorship-gofundme-bans-anti-vaccine-crowdfunding-rt-usa-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Discriminatory censorship? GoFundMe bans anti-vaccine crowdfunding \u2014 RT USA News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.04\/thumbnail\/5cb6ad15dda4c846788b45ff.png\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Crowdfunding platform GoFundMe\u2019s decision to ban anti-vaxxers is discriminatory and hypocritical, media and legal analyst Lionel tells RT, even if the selective censorship by a non-governmental body is \u2013strictly speaking\u2013 legal.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\u201c<em>Is this an opinion, and is this a discussion point that should be protected? And if so, by whom?<\/em>\u201d Lionel asks rhetorically, explaining that, while as a private company GoFundMe has a right to kick anti-vaxxers off its platform, if a competing fundraising site tried to ban a more socially-acceptable group \u2013 an LGBT activist organization, say, or a pro-choice campaign \u2013 \u201c<em>they\u2019d be in the streets and screaming and yelling!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong><em>It depends on whose ox is being gored<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"media__youtube-frame lazyload\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300px\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E8hfmIvVYFc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>We understand that those are the rules. But why is it that we cannot discuss this?<\/em>\u201d he asks, interrogating the American Medical Association\u2019s warning to tech companies that they have a \u201c<em>responsibility<\/em>\u201d to \u201c<em>curb anti-vax propaganda<\/em>.\u201d Why, he wonders, isn\u2019t the doctors\u2019 organization demanding a crackdown on vaping, or chocolate bars, or other heavily-promoted items that do much more damage to Americans\u2019 health than failure to vaccinate?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em><strong>Propaganda means something somebody else doesn\u2019t like!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"read-more-big\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/454052-vaccination-activists-side-effects-\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n    <span class=\"read-more-big__container\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"read-more-big__content\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__subtitle\">Also on rt.com<\/span><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__title\">\u2018I will never get over feeling I killed my son\u2019: Anti-vaccination activists refuse to be &#8216;silenced\u2019<\/span><br \/>\n        <\/span><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__cover lazyload\" data-bgset=\"&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.03\/xxs\/5c8f6733fc7e935e6d8b4584.jpg 280w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.03\/xs\/5c8f6733fc7e935e6d8b4584.jpg 320w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.03\/thumbnail\/5c8f6733fc7e935e6d8b4584.jpg 460w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.03\/m\/5c8f6733fc7e935e6d8b4584.jpg 540w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.03\/l\/5c8f6733fc7e935e6d8b4584.jpg 768w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.03\/article\/5c8f6733fc7e935e6d8b4584.jpg 980w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.03\/xxl\/5c8f6733fc7e935e6d8b4584.jpg 1240w&#10;                        \" data-sizes=\"auto\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/span><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Instead of the spirited debates of the past, then, \u201c<em>what we do is instead we say no! Stop talking! Time out!<\/em>\u201d It may be any of these platforms\u2019 right to shut down unpopular points of view, Lionel says, but is it really worthy of the \u201c<em>land of the free and home of the brave?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/456776-gofundme-ban-anti-vax-lionel\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crowdfunding platform GoFundMe\u2019s decision to ban anti-vaxxers is discriminatory and hypocritical, media and legal analyst Lionel tells RT, even if the selective censorship by a non-governmental body is \u2013strictly speaking\u2013 legal. \u201cIs this an opinion, and is this a discussion point that should be protected? And if so, by whom?\u201d Lionel asks rhetorically, explaining that, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":403259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-403258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}