Facebook has shut down the Facebook page “Convoy to DC 2022” as of Tuesday following rapid growth to 139,000 followers.
QUICK FACTS:
- Facebook took down the social media hub for the truckers convoy to Washington D.C. by shutting down the Facebook page that had almost 140,000 followers at the time, according to Information Liberation.
- According to one of the organizers, North Carolina congressional candidate, Tyler Lee, a second group was started by the leadership and it was shut down within 24 hours.
- Fox News reported that Facebook’s parent company Meta, provided a statement saying that they removed the group for “repeatedly violating our policies around QAnon.”
- Two of the group organizers not only had the pages removed but their profiles removed from Facebook altogether, blocking them from doing any administration to get the pages aligned with Facebook’s policy.
BACKLASH FROM TRUCKERS:
- Truckers, looking to follow Canada’s lead and push back against vaccine mandates, were not delighted by the page’s removal. One group organizer called it “censorship at its finest,” according to Fox News.
- “They like to silence people that speak the truth,” page creator Jeremy Johnson said of his Facebook ban.
- “I have to laugh about that. Can they contact me or something? Can we talk? That’s not true,” co-organizer Bryan Base asked on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday about the supposed conspiracy network accusation.
- “They actually had offered the administrators to remove content and then request to review again. They didn’t even give that option.
BACKGROUND:
- Truckers have said this movement is a “long time coming” and that it’s prompted by “government overreach” and what some believe is unconstitutional actions on the part of the federal government.
- The movement was sparked by the “Freedom Convoy” that made its way across Canada, ending in Ottawa just days ago, in protest to Canada’s COVID-29 policies.
