#socialmedia #bluesky #palestine #gaza
Lately in BlueSky there has been a wave of new members signing up, they are supposedly from Gaza , all of the come with a GoFundme link , there are lots of them , for some reason I find that suspicious, there are so many scams right now that I don’t believe it, here is an example.
Why would this be suspicious to you, Jorro? Is it just because they're now entering a space where you hadn't seen them before? Instagram and TikTok have been awash in campaigns with similar stories, because a lot of people are struggling. You can find videos of everyday Gazan suffering & industrious families begging for help everywhere.
In this case, the GoFundMe is for shrapnel removal, probably lower priority amid diminished regional services and therefore costly. Why presume a scam?
@MLClark I don’t trust easily, I have seen many scams, in my job we have been victims of them because my boss trusts people, ironically the scammers have been the ones that say “ I’m a Christian “ or “ God bless you “, we also live in an era where you can manipulate pictures, videos and all that stuff , to me it would be better if it were through an organization, , I lost my confidence in humanity.
When the war in Tigray broke out, one of the first horrific realizations I had was that none of my go-to NGOs could reach people in need. Armies wouldn't let them. War breaks down organizational response.
I know here on CoSo there's a bit of a bubble, so people here aren't as acclimated to seeing the suffering in Gaza. It must be shocking to have it suddenly show up in your feed, but families have been reaching out small-scale, the same as GoFundMes are used in the US, from the start.
This isn't to say that scams don't happen, but that's true for all GoFundMes, so if the skepticism is simply because people in a war scenario are sharing fundraisers for surgeries to remove lingering shrapnel, and not for someone from Kansas who needs help with the funeral costs for their pet parrot, it's worth considering that part of the suspicion here simply comes from the type of ask being outside your usual exposure set.
@MLClark I understand that but I don’t donate to those causes ( the parrot guy from Kansas ) or similar, how can you be sure you are donating to real people with those problems?
The same as for any other fundraiser; these sites are set up by people who can be investigated, and are.
When it comes to folks in Gaza, sites like Instagram & TikTok make it super easy to see the person involved, & other social media follows the same pattern of introducing you to the full family. It's no different than any other fundraiser.
So if you're not a fan of fundraisers, not an issue!
But war-based GoFundMes are no more likely to be scams than ones for medical bills at home.
Our society has so thoroughly degraded, in terms of our overall social welfare, that I'm awash in everyday calls on social media for help with rent, electrical bills, medical fees, etc - "If 65 people could Venmo $10, you'd be doing this disabled single mom of four a great kindness!" just showed up on BlueSky today.
It doesn't help that there are tons of scams online.
There's also a lot of unmet need and people suffering.
Tough to navigate it all with any sanity intact!
@MLClark yes, it doesn’t help all that , maybe I just think everything is bad when it is not and maybe the problem is in me , I’m just skeptical.
I wouldn't say it's just you; fear of scams has skyrocketed alongside the wide range of new online scams afflicting young and old demographics (younger people more often, but older people for higher financial hits).
The problem is that this fear reflects an overall rise in small-c conservative distrust in shared systems, which has huge consequences for our politics. A lot of bad *political* actors benefit from us losing our trust in systems in general.
So it's not you! It's The Times.
@MLClark yes, these are difficult times, and just when people need help.