Anti-vaxxers banned from raising money on GoFundMe

Anti-vaxxers have been banned from raising money on GoFundMe in an attempt to stop the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation.

The crowdfunding platform announced it was carrying out a “thorough review” following reports that one campaigner had gathered nearly $80,000 (£60,000) in donations.

Larry Cook, who promoted his fundraising efforts using Facebook adverts, targeted mothers with claims the medical community was covering up baby “slaughter”.

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GoFundMe spokesman Bobby Whithorne said: “Campaigns raising money to promote misinformation about vaccines violate GoFundMe’s terms of service and will be removed from the platform.

“We are conducting a thorough review and will remove any campaigns currently on the platform.”

Shape Created with Sketch. The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement Show all 7 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. The famous faces of the anti-vaccine movement 1/7 Charlie Sheen Sheen fought a legal battle against ex-wife Denise Richards to try and block her from vaccinating their children. Richards of course won and Sheen was reportedly so bitter that he paid the paediatrician bill entirely in nickels Getty 2/7 Gwyneth Paltrow Paltrow's "health and wellness" company Goop hosted a notorious anti-vaccine speaker at their 2018 Goop Summit Getty 3/7 Rob Schneider Schneider falsely claimed that the US Supreme Court had deemed vaccines "unavoidably unsafe" and demanded the freedom to decline vaccination Getty 4/7 Jenny McCarthy McCarthy has claimed that "people are dying from vaccinations", believes that her son caught autism from a vaccine and has pushed her opinions on the topic publicly for many years AFP/Getty 5/7 Bill Maher Maher has long spoken against vaccines sating on Larry King live that "a flu shot is the worst thing you can do." His stance appears to stem from a distrust of government AFP/Getty 6/7 Alicia Silverstone In Silverstone's book The Kind Mama, she wrote that "there is increasing anecdotal evidence from doctors who have gotten distressed phone calls from parents claiming their child was ‘never the same’ after receiving a vaccine." Getty 7/7 Andrew Wakefield Godfather of the anti-vax movement, disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield famously published a report in the medical journal Lancet claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in 1998. The Lancet retracted the report in 2010 and Wakefield was struck off the medical register PA 1/7 Charlie Sheen Sheen fought a legal battle against ex-wife Denise Richards to try and block her from vaccinating their children. Richards of course won and Sheen was reportedly so bitter that he paid the paediatrician bill entirely in nickels Getty 2/7 Gwyneth Paltrow Paltrow's "health and wellness" company Goop hosted a notorious anti-vaccine speaker at their 2018 Goop Summit Getty 3/7 Rob Schneider Schneider falsely claimed that the US Supreme Court had deemed vaccines "unavoidably unsafe" and demanded the freedom to decline vaccination Getty 4/7 Jenny McCarthy McCarthy has claimed that "people are dying from vaccinations", believes that her son caught autism from a vaccine and has pushed her opinions on the topic publicly for many years AFP/Getty 5/7 Bill Maher Maher has long spoken against vaccines sating on Larry King live that "a flu shot is the worst thing you can do." His stance appears to stem from a distrust of government AFP/Getty 6/7 Alicia Silverstone In Silverstone's book The Kind Mama, she wrote that "there is increasing anecdotal evidence from doctors who have gotten distressed phone calls from parents claiming their child was ‘never the same’ after receiving a vaccine." Getty 7/7 Andrew Wakefield Godfather of the anti-vax movement, disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield famously published a report in the medical journal Lancet claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in 1998. The Lancet retracted the report in 2010 and Wakefield was struck off the medical register PA

However The Independent has found several campaigns promoting the anti-vaxxer message still running on the site, three weeks after GoFundMe’s decision was reported by The Daily Beast.

One, titled “Stop Non-INFO World Vaccinations”, spreads claims about a “national emergency” due to the US Centre for Disease Control injecting mercury into children and pregnant women to vaccinate them against flu.

The founder of the campaign, “Jeb Boston Dawson”, claims he aims to “get the laws changed on vaccines”. So far his campaign has raised just $5, based on a single donation from himself.

Another campaign attempted to raise money to “fight mandatory vaccination” by lobbying US Congress to prevent removal of exemptions on religious grounds. It has no backers.

Other campaigns claim to be raising money for disabilities blamed on vaccinations.

A total of $1,010 has been raised to help a Californian woman who is said to have suffered sight loss after having the shingles vaccine and another has collected $220 based on claims that a pet dog was paralysed after receiving a vaccination for rabies.

Anti-vaxxers also remain active on Facebook, with the Vaccination Information Network and the Truth About Vaccines Docuseries both attracting more than 100,000 followers and likes. The “Vaccine Injury Stories” group has 26,000 members.

It follows increasing concerns over a surge of measles and chicken pox outbreaks across the UK, US, and Europe, and around the world. More than 1,200 people have died in a recent measles outbreak in Madagascar.

Social media companies are under pressure to take tougher action and the UK government has announced it is considering new rules to ban any anti-vaccine posts.

YouTube has demonetised anti-vaxxer videos, Pinterest has blocked search results for the term and Facebook claims to have reduced the prominence of posts spreading misleading information.

GoFundMe has not yet responded to requests for comment on its anti-vaxxer policy.