GoFundMe is banning crowdfunding campaigns for the alleged Charlottesville killer

GoFundMe says it’s banning fundraising efforts on behalf of the man who allegedly drove his car into protesters at the recent Charlottesville white supremacist rally. GoFundMe communications director Bobby Whithorne tells Reuters that the platform has removed several fundraising campaigns for James Fields, who is accused of killing anti-racist protester Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. “Those campaigns did not raise any money and they were immediately removed,” he says. Whithorne says that fewer than 10 campaigns had been created so far, and any future efforts will also be shut down, on the grounds of violating GoFundMe’s rules against promoting hate speech and violence.

This ban is part of a crackdown on white supremacist content by tech companies, including Google, GoDaddy, Airbnb, and Facebook. It’s also part of GoFundMe’s ongoing attempt to manage unsavory campaigns for people accused of racist crimes. The platform at one point defended a fundraiser for Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, but it later explicitly banned “campaigns in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes,” after a police union used it to raise money for the officers accused of killing Freddie Gray in Baltimore. However, far-right-friendly crowdfunding site Rootbocks currently hosts at least two campaigns related to the Saturday rally, including a general legal defense fund.