The removal of Israel Folau from the GoFundMe website puts the Australian rugby union star in the company of far right militia, anti-vaccination campaigners and police officers accused of killing an African-American man in being banned from the fundraising site.
However, the site has has allowed other controversial pages to remain, including one raising funds for the legal fees of anti-abortion campaigner Graham Preston, to remain online.
Preston, a Queensland man who was convicted of breaching safe zone laws in Tasmania that protect women seeking an abortion, launched his appeal in July last year.
Israel Folau was sacked by Rugby Australia following his post on social media claiming gay people would go to hell. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers
The self-described "pro-life advocate" had been fined $3000 for standing outside the abortion clinic with right to life signage in 2016.
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He was seeking $48,000 for his case, which went to the High Court this year, but he has so far received about $5600.
Although his High Court challenge failed, he said all donations were still going towards his legal fees.
There had been no pressure to remove his campaign.
"I don't know if that is because nobody had noticed or not," he said.
Anti-abortion protesters John Graham Preston and Kathleen Clubb outside the High Court in Brisbane after their loss in April.Credit:AAP
He said he had chosen GoFundMe as a platform because it was the first to come to his mind, rather than for any explicit free speech purpose.
"I just knew of them and chose them. There was no particular reason," Mr Preston said.
Just as a page supporting a LGBT documentary to counter Mr Folau's fundraiser remains on GoFundMe, so too do other pages to fund individual women's abortions and increase access to abortion services are also available on the platform.
But GoFundMe has banned numerous other campaigns overseas as it grapples with what campaigns to allow and what to ban.
In the United States it has taken down campaigns to support far right militia, anti-vaccination campaigners and police officers accused of killing an African American man.
In its terms and conditions, the site forbids fundraising for numerous purposes, including "intolerance of any kind" as well as "any other activiRead More – Source
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