Facebook has censored a group of American truckers who are following the lead of their Canadian counterparts by organizing a protest against vaccine mandates.
The group, titled “Convoy to D.C. 2022,” was a place where truckers met online to plan and coordinate their convoy from California to Washington D.C., according to a report by Fox News. The group follows in the wake of Canadian truckers’ “Freedom Convoy.” The Canadian movement has faced financial blacklisting by another Silicon Valley company, GoFundMe.
A spokesperson for Facebook (now Meta) told Breitbart News, “We have removed this group for repeatedly violating our policies around QAnon.”
Protestors show their support for the Freedom Convoy of truck drivers who are making their way to Ottawa to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates by the Canadian government on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, in Vaughan. (Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is applauded as he delivers the opening keynote introducing new Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram privacy features at the Facebook F8 Conference at McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California on April 30, 2019. – Got a crush on another Facebook user? The social network will help you connect, as part of a revamp unveiled Tuesday that aims to foster real-world relationships and make the platform a more intimate place for small groups of friends. (Photo by Amy Osborne / AFP) (Photo credit should read AMY OSBORNE/AFP/Getty Images)
Brian Brase, the co-organizer of Convoy to D.C. 2022, disputes the way Facebook describes the group, telling Fox & Friends, “I have to laugh about that — can they contact me or something? Can we talk? Because that’s not true.”
“They actually had offered the administrators to remove content, and then request to review again,” he added. “They didn’t even give that option.”
Meanwhile, Jeremy Johnson, who set up the group, said that his personal Facebook account was also removed.
“Censorship at its finest,” Johnson told Fox News of his Facebook ban. “They like to silence people that speak the truth.”
Another trucker involved in the convoy, Mike Landis, also had his account blacklisted.
“They literally wiped Mike Landis and Jeremy completely out of Facebook,” Brase said. “Their Facebook profiles are gone, banned. They don’t even have a profile anymore. So how are you supposed to request a review or remove anything?”
Landis told Fox News that this movement has been “a long time coming,” and said that Americans are tired of “government overreach.”
He added that the Canadian truckers “set a great precedent, and that “the presence of that amount of people that show that they are unhappy with what’s going on is a good way to hopefully get their attention.”
Regardless of the Facebook ban, the group anticipates that their protest will get “very big,” and that a wide range of Americans — not only truckers — will come out to support their cause.
“We have a lot of people getting in touch with us,” Johnson said. “They’re interested in being involved in this, and it’s not [just] truckers, it’s everyday American people.”
Brase also said that the protest convoy — which is expected to start on March 1 — will be peaceful.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.