Buy Me a Coffee removes far-right influencers and QAnon accounts
Buy Me a Coffee, an online crowdfunding service for creatives, immediately responded to a new report showing far-right influencers raising money on its platform.
Dozens of influential figures from the QAnon conspiracy community have been banned from the Buy Me a Coffee platform, which allows users to stop making one-off payments as well as recurring subscriptions to support their favorite creators. Other prominent online right-wing figures, including some of those who took part in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, have also been suspended from the platform.
QAnon influencers are now reportedly scamming their followers through cryptocurrency scams
The move from Buy Me a Coffee is in response to a new report(opens in a new tab) from Media Matters for America, which details some of the biggest QAnon numbers on the platform. QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory whose proponents believe former President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a globalist cabal of baby-eating traffickers made up of Hollywood elites and Trump’s political enemies. QAnon believers have become increasingly violent over the years, leading to this warnings(opens in a new tab) from the FBI. Many social media platforms such as Facebook, youtubeAnd Twitter, QAnon content banned in recent years. (Twitter has since permitted(opens in a new tab) many earlier exposed(opens in a new tab) QAnon users are back on the platform under their new ownership. Elon Musk.)
According to Media Matters, QAnon characters using Buy Me a Coffee include Charlie Freak, Liz Crokin, and RedPill78. Other far-right figures found in the report include Patrick Casey and Baked Alaska. The more than two dozen accounts in Media Matters’ report, including the one just mentioned, have all been removed from the Buy Me a Coffee platform.
Collectively, these far-right accounts had raised nearly $200,000 through Buy Me a Coffee before being removed.
“We condemn hate groups in the strongest possible terms and have a moderation team that takes them down on a daily basis, even before they make any money,” Buy Me a Coffee CEO Jijo Sunny said in a statement to Media Matters. “This is sometimes overridden when people pretend to be someone else to raise money. We will continue to exercise extra caution and take action as soon as it is noticed or reported.”
