SCAM: Patreon Hosting Fake Paul Joseph Watson Fundraiser
Patreon is a website designed to support content creators by allowing their fans to make monthly contributions to support their content. At its core, it is a great solution to work around the instability of websites like YouTube, which regularly removes income streams from online content creators.
But unsurprising for a company located in Silicon Valley, the platform has been known to police content from right-wing content creators like Lauren Southern, who had her Patreon page shut down for having opinions they didn’t like.
But while the fundraising website was heavily concerned with shutting down a 22 year old right winger, they don’t seem to care as much when a page is set up to scam the fans of another right wing commentator. That is exactly what is happening with Paul Joseph Watson, who has asked Patreon to remove a page that falsely claims to be him, and has over 100 monthly donors.
Whoever is scamming people by claiming to be me on Patreon needs to shut it down and give the money to charity.
I am not on Patreon. I've tried to contact them to shut it down but nothing has happened. @Patreon
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) May 4, 2018
The account in question is clearly in violation of the companies terms of use, as outlined on their website:
Impersonation – Don’t impersonate anyone. Don’t use another’s account, or allow others to use your account.
Large tech companies have been known to have different rules when it comes to conservative commentators. Websites like Facebook have been known to sensor conservative views. With Patreon being in the same “Silicon Valley culture” as Facebook, it isn’t surprising that they treat their conservative users differently.
Big League Politics has reached out to Patreon for comment, and they stated they are looking into the situation. We will update you with any developments.
UPDATE: After this article was published, Patreon reached out to Big League Politics to inform us that the fake page referenced in this article has been removed. Leaving this official statement: The creator page has been suspended while the proper due diligence is being taken to verify the owner of the page.
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