Indiegogo bans anti-vaxxers from crowdfunding on its platform

A campaign on the platform raised more than $86,000 to create an anti-vaccination documentary

Crowdfunding platform Indiegogo has announced it will no longer allow anti-vaxxers to fundraise on its platform.

According to BuzzFeed, the website will ban any projects “making health claims that do not have a scientific backing”.

The move comes after a campaign on the platform raised more than $86,000 (£66,500) to create an anti-vaccination documentary entitled Vaxxed II: The People’s Truth.

It was set to be a follow-up to Vaxxed: From Cover-Up To Catastrophe, a 2016 film directed by Andrew Wakefied, the discredited former British doctor who first linked the MMR vaccination to autism in a now-debunked research paper published in 1998.

The film – which reaffirms the idea of this non-existent link – was withdrawn from Tribeca Film Festival and has recently been removed from streaming sites Amazon Prime Video and Hoopla.

The filmmakers will still receive the money they raised – excluding Indiegogo’s 5 per cent cut – but the new policy aims to avoid similar projects from being able to use the platform in the future. Fellow crowdfunding site GoFundMe has recently issued similar guidelines.

It was reported last week that the number of measles cases is at a 25-year high in the US, with health officials blaming the spread of misinformation around vaccination for the outbreak.

In the UK more than half a million children have not been vaccinated against the potentially deadly virus.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization warned that its preliminary data from the first three months of 2019 showed that the number of measles cases reported worldwide was 300 per cent higher than the same period in 2018.

Political figures such as Donald Trump and Italian deputy prime minister Mateo Salvini have been criticised for giving credence to false information linking vaccinations to autism.

Trump has since seemingly backpedalled and encouraged people to “get their shots”.

Other prominent anti-vaxxer celebrities include Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey and Charlie Sheen.

Indiegogo was founded in 2008 as a way to help creatives secure funding for their projects through small investments from members of the public.

The Independent has contacted Indiegogo for comment.