After Facebook bans QAnon content, protesting truckers shift to alt platforms online
Facebook citing its policies suspended groups associated with trucker protests in the United States and Canada to prohibit QAnon content and inauthentic activity. Trucker protests are organzied by a loose coalition of truckers and conservative groups against a new measure that would require unvaccinated truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border to quarantine once they have returned home.
A spokesperson for Facebook said, "We have removed multiple groups for repeatedly violating our policies around QAnon and using spammy tactics to mislead people about the origin and popularity of the group’s content." In October 2020, Facebook labeled QAnon, as "violence-inducing conspiracy network" and announced group pages and admins tied to QAnon will be removed.
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Brian Brase, co-organizer of the group Convoy to D.C. 2022 (protest of truckers driving from California to the nation's capital), disputed the way Facebook characterized the group. "I have to laugh about that. Can they contact me or something? Can we talk? That's not true", he said while talking on Fox & Friends. Brase added, "They actually had offered the administrators to remove content and then request to review again. They didn't even give that option."
"They literally wiped Mike Landis and Jeremy completely out of Facebook", he said. "They don't even have a profile anymore, so how are you supposed to request a review or remove anything?", Brase asked. Facebook groups supporting the truckers have swelled in both the US and Canada. A Canadian group sympathetic to the protests reportedly had 600,000 members.
After the Facebook suspension, the truckers and their supporters have shifted to alternative platforms such as Gab, Telegram, and 4chan to dox those suspected of planning a counter-protest, calling for illegal activity, and most importantly, to spread QAnon conspiracy theories.
A Telegram group for a convoy from Ottawa, 'Canada to Washington, D.C.' gained 30,000 subscribers in a matter of days. Posts on these platforms range widely from general expressions of support to calls for violence and other illegal activities such as invoking QAnon themes and sayings. "We can do infiltration, fuckery, and doxing too, Leftoids," wrote a member of the Canadian Truckers Convoy Gab group. The post included links to a 4chan thread discussing the convoy and the URL for a discord server that tells people are planning a counter-protest. The thread also includes addresses and contact information of people who supposedly support the counter-protest.
One anonymous user on the thread suggests that the person they doxed is a pedophile and writes, "Anyone know any of these cux addresses yet? I’m thinking they might want to order some cheese pizzas." Ordering food delivery is a common tactic used by far-right to a perceived enemy’s address to spread fear. Other posts refer to people who oppose the truckers with homophobic and transphobic slurs.
Some claim that they’ve infiltrated counter-protesters’ Discord server or are in the process of doing so. An administrator stated that things have been calm on the server. "There’s been nothing major today". "The members we have are mostly focused on helping others in the area."
Meanwhile, a member of the American Freedom Convoy 2022 Gab group suggested shutting down the Super Bowl as a way to "accomplish their goal quickly without having to drive very far!". One member replied on the group, "Great idea. Surround the stadium like the Walls of Jerricho [sic] and ‘sound your horns’ during a play. Everyone watching the game on TV will hear it. The walls will fall." Trucker protests are planned to continue in both the U.S. and Canada.