Israel Folau's GoFundMe Page Was Removed, Donors To Be Refunded

GoFundMe closed Israel Folau's page as it violated their terms of service.

Israel Folau is a notorious figure in Australia.

To bring you up to speed, the former rugby player was terminated from his contract with Rugby Australia after he ignored multiple warnings against his posting of hateful messages against the LGBTQIA+ community on his public social media pages.

He plans to fight the decision, and to do so, the rugby player who had been signed to multi-million-dollar contracts throughout his career, took to GoFundMe to raise $AUD3 million to cover his legal costs.

But now, his page, which had reached at least $AUD700,000 in donations, has been cancelled by the platform due to a violation of their terms of service. Specifically, they do not allow campaigns "in support of, or for the legal defense" of hate, discrimination, intolerance on the basis of sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity.

GoFundMe released a statement saying that, as a company, they were "completely committed to the fight for equality LGBTIQ+ people and fostering an environment of inclusivity."

The statement continued to read, "We do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion" and "Australians have shown themselves to be among the most kind and generous people in the world."

All donors to the campaign, according to GoFundMe's statement, will be issued with a full refund.

Sadly, this is probably not the last we'll hear of the hateful saga.