An important development in the French-speaking disinfo world: the "Hold-Up" film & the risks of crowdfunding platforms. A thread https://twitter.com/Guillaume_HB/status/1326815954173636609

The project raised a substantial budget of almost €200,000 through crowdfunding platforms such as Ulule or Tipeee.

As a reminder, a similar movie "Plandemic" triggered many policy responses from social media. But with "Hold Up", it remains unclear whether platforms have decided yet to limit the spread of this conspiracy piece.

Our previous investigation on a French white supremacist network already called these services to our attention. This extremist network was using a French crowdfunding platform called Tipeee as a way to monetise polarising content and disinformation.

We investigated more deeply how these platforms address disinformation on their services. For this blogpost, we had a closer look at Kickstarter, Patreon, GoFundMe, Indiegogo and Tipeee.

Our findings:
conspiratorial narratives are monetised easily on crowdfunding platforms (CFPs)
Some CFPs have taken action, but only on an ad hoc basis & not regularly enforced
Conspiracists use CFPs to raise money when their content has been removed on Facebook/YouTube

For more on the disinformation risks linked to crowdfunding platforms see our publication from Oct 1 2020: "How COVID-19 conspiracists and extremists use crowdfunding platforms to fund their activities" https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/how-covid-19-conspiracists-and-extremists-use-crowdfunding-platforms-to-fund-their-activities