GoFundMe, the crowdfunding company, has defended its decision to host an online campaign to raise money for the police officer who shot dead Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old in Missouri, after some donors posted racist statements.
More than $225,000 (£154,000) has been raised for officer Darren Wilson through a page dedicated to helping him and his family “during this trying time in their lives”. Organisers said that the money would go to “any financial needs they may have including legal fees”.
Wilson killed Brown in sharply disputed circumstances on 9 August. Police have said that Brown assaulted Wilson after being stopped for jaywalking. Witnesses have said that Brown was shot while attempting to flee a struggle. A grand jury has begun hearing evidence about the shooting.
Some of the more than 5,600 people to have contributed money to the GoFundMe page also left racist comments that were noted by Twitter users. “I am so sick of the blacks using every excuse in the book to loot and riot,” said one donor of $50, calling herself Diane Schroeder.
“Don’t let the savages win,” wrote one donor, calling himself Timothy Flagg. An anonymous donor told Wilson: “We appreciate your service in the animal control division of the Ferguson police department.”
GoFundMe typically takes 5% from the total raised by campaigns using the site, meaning that it stands to collect more than $11,000 from the fundraising effort for Wilson so far.
In a statement released on Friday, a spokeswoman for GoFundMe said: “Some donors’ comments have contained content that is in violation of GoFundMe’s terms and have been removed accordingly.”
The website’s acceptable use policy states that it may not be used for activities relating to the sale of “items that promote hate, violence, racial intolerance or the financial exploitation of a crime”.
However, the statement on Friday also said: “The content of the campaign itself is not in violation of GoFundMe’s terms of service.”
“Much like Facebook and Twitter, GoFundMe is an open technology platform that allows for the exchange of ideas and opinions within the bounds of our terms of service,” said the statement, which was attributed to Kelsea of “GoFundMe Customer Happiness”.
The company’s decision to allow the page to continue prompted calls for a boycott from Shaun King, a Los Angeles-based civil rights activist. “Unless the Wilson campaign is ended we ask that you never use the site again for new campaigns,” he said on Twitter.
Janai Nelson, the associate director-counsel of the NAACP legal defence and educational fund, said on Friday that people were directing money to one side of “an extraordinarily racially charged incident” despite not having information to prove that Wilson acted appropriately.
“We don’t know enough, and don’t have have enough facts from the case, for such a public outcry in support of the officer,” Nelson told the Guardian.
Organisers said that Shield Of Hope was “the official non-profit organisation accepting donations for Officer Wilson at this time”. The new crowdfunding page had raised more than $15,000 within a few hours on Friday.
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