- Texas and Missouri's attorneys general have got caught up in Ottawa's Freedom Convoy.
- Both have demanded that GoFundMe investigate why it blocked donations to protesters.
- The protest started as a gathering of Canadian truckers who opposed the country's vaccine mandate.
The attorneys general of Texas and Missouri have opened investigations into GoFundMe for blocking donations to the "Freedom Convoy" protesters in Ottawa.
The protest started late last month as a gathering of Canadian truckers who opposed the country's vaccine mandate for drivers traveling to the US. However, it quickly snowballed into a wider demonstration against the government's pandemic response.
The organizers had set up a GoFundMe fundraiser, which raised $10 million in donations to finance the protest and buy fuel but GoFundMe shut it down on Saturday. It said it did so due to evidence "that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity."
Some protesters have let off fireworks and blocked roads, including the busiest bridge for transporting goods between the US and Canada. Ottawa's mayor declared a state of emergency Sunday and the city's police has launched dozens of criminal investigations linked to the demonstrations.
After GoFundMe announced it was blocking the fundraiser, it at first said that it would refund people who applied to get their money back and then donate any unclaimed funds to charities chosen by the protest's organizers. But the crowdfunding platform faced backlash over the policy, including from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and instead said the donations would be automatically returned to donors.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday that he had sent a civil investigative demand to GoFundMe, instructing it to look into whether it had violated a Texas act on deceptive trade practices by withholding the funds from protesters.
"GoFundMe's response to an anti-mandate, pro-liberty movement should ring alarm bells to anyone using the donation platform and, more broadly, any American wanting to protect their constitutional rights," Paxton said in a statement.
"Many Texans donated to this worthy cause," Paxton continued. "I am acting to protect Texas consumers so that they know where their hard-earned money is going, rather than allowing GoFundMe to divert money to another cause without the consent of Texas citizens. I will get to the bottom of this deceitful action."
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt told Fox Business that it had also opened an investigation into GoFundMe's actions "to silence the Freedom Convoy."
He said that his office on Wednesday had also sent GoFundMe a civil investigative demand to GoFundMe "to get to the bottom of why the Freedom Convoy's fundraiser was removed from the platform and why funds were not immediately refunded to contributors or given to the fundraiser's organizer."
"I will not stand by and allow these big tech firms to perniciously cancel or stifle speech they disagree with," he added.
After being removed from GoFundMe, the Freedom Convoy organizers have since turned to Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo where they've raised more than $8 million from more than 89,000 donors.
The money would be used mainly to buy fuel for protesters but also to finance food and lodgings "to help ease the pressures of this arduous task," the organizers say.
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