Like many modern protest movements, Canada’s “Freedom Convoys” organize themselves via social media. Now it turns out that many of the Facebook groups can be traced back to con artists from abroad.
It is well known that national corona protests are organized in particular via the Internet and social media. On the other hand, it is often unclear who organizes these pages and what drives the administrators. For several months, conspiracy theorists and investigative authorities have been puzzling over who is hiding behind the synonym “Q” in the “Qanon” movement.
In the case of the Canadian trucker movement – the so-called “Freedom Convoy” – research by the Guardian often leads to a much simpler motivation: money. Earlier this month, Facebook deleted dozens of groups supporting the self-proclaimed freedom movement. Not because of the large amount of extremist and conspiracy theory, but because the groups were run by internet scammers. Margarita Franklin, a spokeswoman for Facebook’s parent company Meta, confirmed the reports to media representatives last week: “We are seeing more and more scammers who want to enrich themselves on current issues, such as the current protests.”
For several weeks, demonstrators have been blocking the streets of Ottawa with trucks and other vehicles to protest the Corona measures and the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government. In the meantime, American border crossings have also been blocked. At the weekend, the police began clearing the streets.
The scammers’ trail leads abroad
Two of the trucker movement’s largest Facebook groups were run by a Bangladeshi marketing firm. More than 170,000 people followed the two sides. Another network of 140 fake news sites was traced back to the small town of Veles in North Macedonia alone. Other Facebook groups originated in Vietnam and Romania, among other places.
They all benefit from a political climate in North America that is characterized by misinformation, a politically divided media system and extremely conservative themes. Foreign disinformation campaigns with political interests – especially from Russia – have already been proven in the last two election campaigns. The economic exploitation of this misinformation, which is reminiscent of the basic forms of cybercrime, has experienced a resurgence in recent months.
For residents of economically weak nations, a disinformation campaign on US and Canadian issues can bring major economic benefits. On Facebook alone there are hundreds of websites that imitate American news outlets and are financed by advertising revenue. With an open right-wing populist attitude, they spread like wildfire on social media. After all, one is usually always confronted with news articles that support one’s own political stance and have a high interaction rate, regardless of the quality of the content.
Portals like the “US Military News” spread pro-Trump articles and repeatedly get caught up in wild conspiracy theories. Contrary to what the name suggests, the site cannot be traced back to the American army or even to the USA, but to Vietnam. In addition to advertising on the site, revenue is generated through Amazon affiliate links and a suspicious online shop. According to an analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, such a Vietnamese portal registers around 1800 US dollars per month – ten times the average per capita income.
Trucker protests reach the US
In the United States, too, many sides are trying to make financial and political profits from the Canadian “Freedom Convoys”. Investigative journalists from Grid magazine have been able to trace a number of the movement’s Facebook groups to a single Missouri woman. The six accounts had a total of 340,000 followers and posted several thousand posts about the protests in just a few weeks. When asked by Grid, the woman stated that her Facebook account had been hacked and that she was in no way associated with the groups.
Figures from the GoFundMe donation platform show that getting involved in the protest movement can also be financially worthwhile in North America. At the beginning of February, the Canadian anti-vaccination campaign had already raised 7.2 million US dollars from donations there. The platform then blocked the call for donations because it would violate the company’s guidelines. Republican politicians from the United States then called for proceedings against the platform and its alleged cancel culture.
High-ranking conservative politicians from the USA have been trying to bring the trucker protest to American streets since the beginning of the “Freedom Convoys”. Both Donald Trump and his hottest opponent for the presidential candidacy, Ron DeSantis, called for support for the trucker protests. Corresponding groups on Facebook and Telegram had already called in vain for the Superbowl to be blocked last weekend. Now a new date is making the rounds. Various US media reports that the movement intends to move in a convoy from California to Washington DC on March 5th.
Swell:, ,
Source: Stern
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
