The antivaxxers’ campaign called 'Freedom Convoy' that started as a truckers' protest by drivers who were fighting vaccine mandates in Canada and the US in late January is allegedly backed by a Bangladeshi digital marketing firm.
With days going by, the campaign attracted support from many Canadians who are “fed up with Covid-19 norms”. It also spread to a number of European nations.
Washington-based news outlet Grid in a report on Friday said it found evidence of the Bangladeshi firm playing a key role in promoting the Ottawa protest online.
The firm was behind two of the largest Facebook groups related to the Canadian Freedom Convoy — at least until Facebook’s parent company, Meta, removed them Thursday.
The groups, “Freedom Convoy 2022″ and “Convoy to Ottawa 2022,” attracted a combined membership of more than 170,000 since the firm created them on January 27 and January 30, respectively.
Administrators for these Facebook groups included accounts tied to the Bangladeshi firm.
Also Read- 'Freedom Convoy' protests mushroom around the world
The Facebook groups linked to the Bangladeshi firm promoted calls for donations to the Ottawa organizers’ GiveSendGo campaign and pointed members to convoy-related events in Canada.
The Ottawa action is not the only convoy effort that has received purported Bangladeshi support. In Australia, one major Facebook group promoting the “Convoy to Canberra” is reportedly controlled by a single Bangladeshi administrator.
Free speech inspired the promotion?
Jakir Saikot, who claimed to be the founder of the firm, said confirmed he was behind the Facebook groups.
“It was my own choice because I believe in freedom,” he said. “We have a right to talk freely.”
Saikot said he started the groups because he believes in the mission of the protesters. He said he received no payment to conduct his social media activity supporting a protest on the other side of the world.
“The big reason is freedom, and otherwise nothing,” he said. “No one paid us.”
Nazmul Ahasan, an investigative reporter, said Saikot told him he charged the equivalent of $23 per day to promote Facebook pages with hundreds of thousands of followers, and indicated that he worked with organizers of the protests in Canada on the Freedom Convoy Facebook groups.
”I asked about whether [he was] contacted by someone in Canada,” Nazmul said. “He said ‘Yeah.’”
Looking back
Since late January, downtown Ottawa has served as a parking lot for hundreds of heavy-duty trucks, pickup trucks and other vehicles, operated by individuals. On February 6, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson on Sunday declared a state of emergency.
Protesters began disrupting traffic at Detroit’s Ambassador bridge, a major trade corridor between Canada and the US, on February 7.
Also Read- Ottawa mayor declares state of emergency to deal with trucking blockade
Meanwhile, the Freedom Convoy became part of a larger European campaign that aims to rally protestors in Brussels on Monday.
Similar convoys have also been planned in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy and Hungary to oppose a European vaccine mandate. However, authorities in both Paris and Brussels banned protests linked to the so-called "Freedom Convoy" that was scheduled to arrive in the French capital from Friday.
