Health Care

Crowdfunding site Indiegogo to ban anti-vaccine fundraisers

The crowdfunding website Indiegogo is banning anti-vaccine fundraisers and other health fundraisers that aren’t backed by science, the company said Friday, according to BuzzFeed News.

A spokesperson for the company added that the ban has not yet been implemented and did not a provide a timeline for implementation, BuzzFeed News reported. 

The move comes amid a measles outbreak in the U.S. and after anti-vaccine users raised $86,543 for a documentary falsely claiming that vaccines cause autism, according to BuzzFeed News.

{mosads}Indiegogo did not immediately return a request for comment The Hill. 

Another crowdfunding site, GoFundMe, also recently banned anti-vaccine fundraisers from its site.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported last week that there are 695 confirmed cases of measles in the U.S., the highest number since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.

The rise in measles cases has been driven in part by the spread of misinformation and false claims about vaccines, and has led to public health emergency declarations in a number of cities nationwide.