Republican lawmakers wrote to GoFundMe executives on Thursday to express their concern over what they call the crowdfunding platform's ''silencing'' of the Canadian protest convoy and its contributors, who they say are ''peacefully challenging the science and merits of some of these COVID mandates,'' The Hill reported.
In their letter, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said GoFundMe's decision to shut down the truckers' fundraising campaign was sending a message to others that their ''voices will be silenced'' if they speak out against mandates.
The lawmakers have asked the company to provide all documents and communications related to the decision to remove the Canadian protesters' page from its website, as well as the platform's policies on diverting donated funds to other causes that it deems credible.
The Washington Post reported that senior Canadian officials have told U.S. officials to mind their own business after some GOP members voiced their support for the truckers' protests in Canada's capital, Ottawa.
Scalise and Comer also wrote to House Democrats to request an investigation into GoFundMe's removing the truckers' fundraising page — ''yet another incident,'' they say, ''of Big Tech silencing certain viewpoints.''
The congressmen wrote that the company is ''selectively discriminating against certain people by cancelling their ability to organize funds through its crowdfunding platform.''
Addressed to House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., Scalise and Comer wrote that GoFundMe also ''attempted to defraud hardworking taxpayers of millions of dollars in donations received in support of an organization promoting individual freedom, by trying to divert that money away from them and instead funnel it to other unrelated causes.''
The letter noted that GoFundMe changed course only after investigations of the issue were launched by several state attorneys general.
The company ''attempted to justify these actions by claiming that it had received evidence from unidentified local officials that 'the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity,''' Scalise and Comer wrote.
''GoFundMe has not taken similar action against other crowdfunded pages in support of left-leaning protest movements, including those with connections to violence such as bail funds for rioters during the Summer of 2020,'' they added.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's investigation will determine if the company's actions violated the state's Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
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