• U.S.

GoFundMe Removes Campaign to Support Cop in South Carolina Shooting

2 minute read

The crowd-funding website GoFundMe rejected a campaign to raise funds for Michael Slager, the police officer accused of shooting and killing an unarmed black man in South Carolina.

A representative for GoFundMe, marketed as the No. 1 fundraising site for personal causes, confirmed that it had removed the campaign because of unspecified violations to its terms and conditions.

Slager, 33, was charged with murder and fired from the North Charleston Police Department after a video taken by bystander Feidin Santana emerged appearing to show Slager shoot and kill Walter Scott, 50, as he ran away.

“After review by our team, the campaign set up for Officer Slager was removed due to a violation of GoFundMe’s Terms & Conditions,” Kelsea Little, public relations manager at GoFundMe, said in an emailed statement to TIME. “Unfortunately, I’m only able to discuss specific details about the account with the campaign organizer due to privacy concerns,” she wrote.

The campaign organizer has not been identified, but started a new campaign on Indiegogo, another crowd-funding website. The Twitter account to support the officer posted on Wednesday that GoFundMe did not explain why the initial campaign had been removed. By Thursday morning, the new campaign had raised more than $370.

In a statement to TIME, Indigogo indicated that the page did not violate its terms or conditions.

“Indiegogo allows anyone, anywhere to fund ideas that matter to them,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Just like other open platforms — such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter — we don’t judge the content of campaigns as long as they are in compliance with our Terms of Use.”

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Write to Noah Rayman at noah.rayman@time.com