Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding was meant to be about innovation and people in need. So what happens when hate-speech comes calling?

From fidget cubes to financial apps, some of the decade’s buzziest products and trends trace their roots back to crowdfunding websites. Platforms including Kickstarter, GoFundMe and Indiegogo have disrupted the start-up process by providing anyone with the ability to offer up a project that people can support with the amount of funding they choose. Contributors are often given some type of reward, whether it’s something as significant as company equity or as small as a sticker.

Some credit for crowdfunding’s popularity certainly belongs to social media, which has played a key role in amplifying the most creative, ridiculous or heart-rending campaigns. But now these platforms are wrestling with the same questions about ethics and censorship that social media sites have been struggling to address.

Both GoFundMe and Patreon, which pitches itself as a place for creatives to receive funding directly from fans, have removed or 'deplatformed' high-profile users for hate speech – leading to a pledge from one former Patreon patron to open a competing crowdfunding operation. Meanwhile, other sites continue to struggle with how to handle controversial campaigns without losing the supporters they depend on.

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Image credit: Piero Zagami and Michela Nicchiotti.