At least two recent GoFundMe campaigns based in Edmonton have been pulled offline, then reinstated without explanation, with organizers concerned that references to Iran or Iranians may have caused the U.S.-based crowdfunding platform to temporarily disable their campaigns.
Both fundraisers aimed to help families and friends of passengers of the downed Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, which crashed outside Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport after it was struck by missiles launched by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on Wednesday.
One campaign, run by the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton, was shut down less than six hours after the organization held a press conference on Friday announcing its fundraising to help subsidize a memorial service for the victims.
The IHSE GoFundMe link led to a “not found” page just hours after launch. (Screenshot/gofundme.com)
“It was out around six, seven hours, which was terrible for us in terms of capturing all the funds at the peak of the attention,” said Amir Ghahari, treasurer of the IHSE.
Emails provided to CBC News show around midday on Friday, GoFundMe had requested the IHSE provide additional documentation for its fundraiser including “a clear explanation of how you know the intended recipients of your campaign’s donations.”
Everyone’s telling us … if you put the word Iran then you’re going to get blocked.– Amir Ghahari, Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton
The email stated that if a response was not given within seven days, the account would be removed. The IHSE provided CBC with emails showing the organization replied on the same day, within business hours.
Regardless, the campaign was seemingly deleted later that same evening. According to Ghahari, IHSE officials did not receive any alerts from GoFundMe to indicate the campaign was suspended, and were actually alerted that it was not accessible by a local Edmonton media outlet.
Organizers suspected the problem could be that their campaign referenced Iranians, though it was officially titled “In memory of the passengers of Flight PS752.”
“Everyone’s telling us like, if you put the word Iran then you’re going to get blocked. So we’re like, ‘OK what do we do?'” said Ghahari.
“The thing about GoFundMe is for some reason there is no help line, like a phone number that we could reach out to.”
<a href=”https://twitter.com/gofundme?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@gofundme</a> URGENT!!! Hey guys, I’m a board member of Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton (IHSE) and respectfully request your immediate action on resolving our campaign being taken down despite providing information requested. PLEASE!!!<br>URL: <a href=”https://t.co/1qiizbSnpH”>https://t.co/1qiizbSnpH</a><a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlightPS752?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#FlightPS752</a>
Several hours after CBC News made inquiries with GoFundMe representatives, the campaign was restored.
An email from GoFundMe on Friday said the U.S.-based company was in touch with the campaign organizers. The Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton said they did not hear from a company representative until early Sunday morning.
In a message timestamped 5:10 PST on Sunday, a GoFundMe “community manager” advised the IHSE that their campaign was “queued for a proactive review, but has since been cleared to raise funds” and added that funds in the account are subject to a precautionary hold until their payment processor completes a review.
Not the first time
Another Iranian-Canadian attempting to fundraise for the community in the wake of the plane crash ran into a nearly identical problem.
Shayesteh Majdnia of Edmonton launched her own GoFundMe, with similar goals to the Heritage Society, before its fundraiser had launched. Her first attempt was pulled down.
“When they took the page down, I tried every single way to put it back, but my account was totally blocked,” said Majdnia.
A former official with the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton herself, Majdnia had included this detail in her biography and description of the fundraiser to lend credibility.
It may have backfired.
“I did not know the real reason, but somehow I know maybe because I mentioned I was the former president of the Iranian society,” she told CBC News.
Shayesteh Majdnia said she was careful with how she referenced Iran in her GoFundMe after being blocked once before. (Screenshot/gofundme.com)
Majdnia was able to get her campaign restored by reaching out to GoFundMe media and public relations contacts — an option unavailable to the general public. Since being reactivated, her campaign has raised tens of thousands of dollars.
Is it because of sanctions?
In an email to CBC News, GoFundMe said in some cases — which the company called “rare” — sanctions can be a factor.
“In some rare cases, U.S. or Canadian sanctions will prohibit us from supporting specific campaigns,” wrote a communications manager for GoFundMe. The company also included a link to a help page titled “Raising Funds for a Beneficiary in an Unsupported Country.”
However, both the IHSE and Majdnia’s fundraiser descriptions state the funds would be used for beneficiaries in the Edmonton area.
Majdnia’s GoFundMe specifies that it would fund a memorial service in Edmonton, and an endowment fund at the University of Alberta.
“We’re not reaching outside the Edmonton area. We’re like basically helping all the families, victims, and their related family members in the Edmonton area,” said Iranian Heritage Society treasurer Amir Ghahari.
CBC test found same result
As a test, CBC News created an account on GoFundMe and prepared a fundraiser that included the words Iran, Canada, and referenced raising money for the victims “who are in Canada.” The fundraiser was never published or publicly available and the process was not completed.
CBC News received this email after creating a test fundraiser that included a reference to Iran. (Screenshot)
Within an hour, the entire account was suspended. An email was sent from GoFundMe that stated “we are writing to inform you that your GoFundMe account has been removed due to sanctions involving an unsupported country and a violation of our Terms & Conditions.”
GoFundMe hasn’t clarified
GoFundMe did not respond to specific questions about exactly what parts of the terms and conditions were violated for this experiment, or for the other Iranian-Canadian GoFundMe campaigns affected in the Edmonton area.
Under “Prohibited Content” in its terms of service, it includes “activities with, in, or involving countries, regions, governments, persons, or entities that are subject to U.S. and other economic sanctions under applicable law, unless such activities are expressly authorized by the appropriate governmental authority.”
In an email, GoFundMe explicitly stated that Iran “is not a restricted term” on its platform.
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
