28 State Attorneys General
Urge Better Disclosure and Clarity from Big Tech Platform
BATON
ROUGE, LA – Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry led a coalition of 28
Attorneys General in urging GoFundMe to implement better disclosure policies
and greater clarity in terms of service for consumers who use their platform.
The letter stems, in part, from Attorney General Landry’s concern after the
popular crowdfunding platform refused to honor American donations to the
Freedom Convoy in Canada.
“GoFundMe's actions against the Freedom Convoy earlier
this year brought to light an extreme lack of transparency in their policies,”
said Attorney General Landry. “Big Tech platforms such as these must be held
accountable and not be allowed to hide behind arbitrary standards that allow
them to pick and choose ‘worthy’ causes."
According to their website, GoFundMe has served over 50
million donors and helped organizers raise more than $5 billion since its
launch in 2010. Individuals, businesses, and charities pay a fee of 2.2-2.9%,
plus $0.30 per transaction. But information on the terms of service and
policies – particularly related to blocking, freezing, refunding, and
re-directing donations – is hard to find and unclear.
In a letter to GoFundMe, Attorney General Landry and his
colleagues note that “If GoFundMe is making opaque and unilateral decisions
about which fundraisers are legitimate and which fundraisers to re-route
donations to irrespective of initial donor choice, GoFundMe has likely crossed
the line from fundraising platform to fundraiser itself. Such a role implicates
significantly different regulatory schemes directed at ensuring transparency in
charitable giving."
The Attorneys General also offer clear steps toward
transparency and request further information from the platform including how
GoFundMe investigates or analyzes fundraisers on the platform; how they
determine on whether to block, freeze, re-direct or refund donations; and what
happens to those donations.
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Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is joined in the
letter by Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, New Mexico Attorney General
Hector Balderas, and their peers from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Guam, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Montana,
Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands,
Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, U.S. Virgin Islands,
Virginia, and West Virginia.