Representatives of former rugby star Israel Folau have released a statement in response to GoFundMe’s decision to pull his fundraising campaign.
The crowdfunding platform deleted the former Wallaby’s page today, saying it violated their terms of service.
“There appears to be a continuing campaign of discrimination against Israel Folau and his supporters,” the statement reported in The Australian read.
The spokesperson also said that Folau was “very grateful to the 10,000-plus supporters who believed in good faith that their donations would contribute to his case against Rugby Australia,” and that GoFundMe has “buckled to demands against the freedoms of Australians.”
The fundraising campaign had raised over $700,000 to fund the legal challenge against Folau’s employment termination from Rugby Australia. Folau had been seeking $3 million dollars from the public.
The company said it discovered Folau’s campaign violated it terms of service during a routine check of pages. There had however been widespread calls for the page to be removed, with one petition at change.org attracting 94,000 signatures.
GoFundMe said that while the company welcomes “engaging in diverse civil debate, we do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion”. People who donated to Folau’s campaign will be sent a full refund.
OIP Staff
