NorthSC Protest
The website Indiegogo is facing criticism Wednesday for allowing a campaign raising funds for Michael Slager. Pictured: Protesters hold signs at a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina April 8, 2015. Demonstrators rallied on Wednesday against what they described as a culture of police brutality in South Carolina in the case of white officer Michael Slager, who was caught on video killing 50-year-old Walter Scott, a black man, by shooting him in the back as Scott ran away after a traffic stop. Slager was charged on Tuesday with murder in the death of Scott. REUTERS/Randall Hill

Following intense social media backlash, the crowdfunding site Indiegogo is standing by its decision not to remove a campaign raising funds for Michael Slager, the North Charleston, South Carolina, police officer who was charged with murder Tuesday after fatally shooting Walter Scott in the back.

“Indiegogo allows anyone, anywhere to fund ideas that matter to them and just like other open platforms -- such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter -- we don’t judge the content of campaigns as long as they are in compliance with our Terms of Use,” an Indiegogo spokesman said in a statement.

The campaign was launched Wednesday by an anonymous user who asserts that the 33-year-old Slager made a “misstep in judgment” and was “protecting the community” when he fired eight shots at Scott, a 50-year-old unarmed black man who was fleeing at the time.

The campaign is titled “Michael T. Slager Support Fund.” It had raised only $66 as of late Wednesday afternoon, but it has nevertheless attracted the ire of Twitter users who have been calling on Indiegogo to remove it. A number of users are calling for a boycott.

Earlier on Wednesday, the same campaign was removed from GoFundMe, a competing crowdfunding site, which said it violated its terms of service. Last year, GoFundMe came under similar criticism when it allowed campaign organizers to raise more than $400,000 in support of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who shot Michael Brown. Wilson, unlike Slager, was not charged with a crime.

Like Indiegogo, GoFundMe insisted at the time that it was a neutral platform and that did not remove campaigns simply because it disagreed with them. However, it has wavered from that stance in other situations, removing campaigns that contained subject matter it “would rather not be associated with.”

Christopher Zara is a senior writer who covers media and culture. News tips? Email me here. Follow me on Twitter @christopherzara.

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