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IPFS News Link • Social Networking/Social Media

Patreon Changes Policies in Response to Backlash Over Banning Lauren Southern

• Bit League Politics

Patreon's ban came over Southern's involvement with Génération Identitaire's Defend Europe mission, which aims to stop human trafficking by blocking NGO ships that are bringing illegal migrants into Europe instead of returning them to their home nations.

In a letter to Southern announcing her permanent ban, Patreon wrote "it appears that you are currently raising funds in order to take part in activities that are likely to cause loss of life. We have therefore decided to remove your page from Patreon, and paid out your final balance of $95.00 to you." They also asserted that there was no appeals process, and nothing she could do about them taking away her income.

In May, Southern and other activists from the organization were detained by the Italian Coast Guard for attempting to halt a ship called the Aquarius, a German NGO boat, which has been illegally bringing migrants from the Libyan Sea to Sicily. Southern explained that the ship was on their way to go pick up more migrants and was empty at the time of their demonstration.

Following the attempt, the group set out to crowdfund a much larger ship, and were successful in doing so. Gen ID raised over $164,000 from over 2,000 donors on the crowdfunding platform WeSearchr. The group has vowed to pick up any refugees who were stranded in the waters, and return them to the Libyan coast guard. It is unclear how Patreon sees this as causing the "loss of life."


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