Meta Removes Anti-Vaccine Trucker Protest Groups and Pages

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 13 February 2022, 10:02 am

Meta, Facebook's parent company, removed several trucker convoy groups and pages on the platform this week to prevent the infamous Freedom Convoy in Canada from happening in the United States.

Several anti-vaccine groups organized the said convoy.

Meta Removes Trucker Convoy Groups

According to Reuters, the trucker convoy groups and pages were run by scammers from foreign countries such as Romania, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and other countries.

Meta revealed that several of the groups had changed their names to include terms like "freedom," "trucker," and "convoy" in order to catch the interest of the public online.

Also, several of these pages have links to websites that sell pro-Trump and anti-vaccine merchandise. Most of the accounts that are part of the anti-vaccine groups were connected to real people, and it showed that foreigners tried to monetize radicalized Americans.

Also Read: Anti-Vaxxer Claiming COVID-19 Vaccines are Magnetic Got Suspended on Twitter

A spokesperson for Meta told NBC that voicing opposition to government mandates is not against the social media company's policies.

However, Meta has removed several groups and pages for violating their policies repeatedly. The platform also prohibits QAnon content and content run by spammers in different countries.

Meta's spokesperson told Engadget that the company would monitor the situation. The company knows that scammers will continue to latch onto an issue that draws attention, including the ongoing protests against COVID-19 vaccinations.

Over the past few weeks, the platform removed groups and pages run by spammers worldwide who used tactics to mislead Americans about the origin of their content, entice them to go to an off-platform website, and monetize through ad clicks.

The infamous Freedom Convoy happened in Ottawa, Canada, two weeks ago. The capital was paralyzed by thousands of anti-vaccine protestors who have used their vehicles to block entry into the city.

The protest attracted far-right groups, including Canada's version of QAnon called Queen. In Toronto and other cities in the country, police have warned healthcare workers not to wear their uniforms in public, especially during the middle of the protest.

The same protest has paralyzed border crossings between Canada and the United States, prompting President Biden and his administration to push the federal government to take action.

According to NBC News, several anti-vaccine groups in the United States planned to follow the protests in cities across the country.

On Facebook, Zello, and Telegram, the anti-vaccine groups have called on their followers to travel to Los Angeles, California, and Washington DC on March 5.

Meta on Anti-Vaccine Groups

Since 2020, Facebook has battled several groups that spread false information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccines.

Last year, Facebook released an AI that is set to fight misinformation on the platform.

Despite the efforts of the social media company, Facebook was criticized by both the public and the US government for failing to prevent the spread of fake news, according to ABC News.

Last year, documents released by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen showed that employees were worried about how the company was handling COVID-19 misinformation.

Facebook is said to have fact-checked some of the misinformation posted by anti-vaccine groups but failed to take appropriate action and failed to detect the misinformation.

The whistleblower suggests that Facebook's fact-checking in languages other than English is insufficient and almost nonexistent in other languages.

Last year, Meta executives blamed the users for spreading misinformation on Facebook.