As anti-vaccine teams within the US try and stage their very own model of Canada’s disruptive “Freedom Convoy,” international content material mills have labored to bolster these efforts for their very own beneficial properties. This week, Facebook mother or father firm Meta informed Reuters and NBC News it lately eliminated a number of “trucker convoy” teams and pages run by scammers in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Romania and different international locations.
The firm stated lots of these teams had lately modified their names to undertake ones that concerned phrases like “trucker,” “freedom,” and “convoy” in hopes of profiting from the sudden curiosity within the rallies occurring throughout the border. Many of those self same pages included hyperlinks to web sites that offered pro-Trump and anti-vaccine merchandise. At the identical time, many of the accounts that took half in these teams have been tied to actual folks. And so you’ve a state of affairs the place international gamers try to monetize radicalized people.
“Voicing opposition to government mandates is not against Meta’s policies,” a Meta spokesperson informed the community. “However, we have removed multiple groups and Pages for repeatedly violating our policies prohibiting QAnon content and those run by spammers in different countries around the world.”
The firm stated it could monitor the state of affairs. “We continue to see scammers latch onto any hot-button issue that draws people’s attention, including the ongoing protests,” a spokesperson for Meta informed Engadget. “Over the past week, we’ve removed groups and pages run by spammers from different countries around the world who used abusive tactics to mislead people about the origin and popularity of their content to drive them to off-platform websites to monetize ad clicks.”
In the greater than two weeks because the “Freedom Convoy” descended on Ottawa, Ontario, Canada’s capital has been paralyzed by anti-vaccine protestors who’ve used their vehicles and vehicles to dam entry into the town’s downtown core. The protest has attracted a motley crew of far-right people and teams, together with Canada’s QAnon “Queen.” In Toronto and different cities all through the nation, police have warned healthcare employees to not put on their scrubs in public whereas the rallies proceed. Those identical protests have additionally clogged up crucial border crossings between the US and Canada, prompting the Biden administration to push the federal authorities to take motion.
According to NBC News, anti-vaccine teams within the US plan to stage comparable protests in cities throughout the nation. On Facebook, Telegram and voice chat app Zello, these teams have known as on their members to journey to Washington DC and Los Angeles on March fifth. The involvement of international actors making an attempt to bolster these efforts mirrors in some methods what occurred in 2016 when Russia meddled with the presidential election.