A Facebook page organizing a protest by US truckers against vaccine mandates has been removed by the social media giant, riling long-haulers blasting “censorship at its finest,” according to a report.
The “Freedom Convoy” of truckers, following the lead of their Canadian counterparts, plan to drive from California to Washington, DC, in opposition to vaccine rules nationwide.
The group’s “Convoy to DC 2022” page on Facebook, however, was removed Wednesday for violating policies around QAnon, Fox News reported.
Trucker Jeremy Johnson, who set up the Facebook group, said his personal profile was also removed, leading him to contact a civil rights attorney to figure out his next move.
“They like to silence people that speak the truth,” Johnson told Fox News.
Brian Brase, who helped organize the US trucker protest, said he was troubled by the alleged censorship without further clarification from Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
“I have to laugh about that,” Brase told Fox News Wednesday. “They actually had offered the administrators to remove content and then request to review again. They didn’t even give that option.”
Mike Landis, another long-haul trucker involved in the movement, said the protest has been a “long time coming” and that Americans are fatigued by ongoing “government overreach” in the form of pandemic-related mandates.
“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,” Landis told Fox News.
The truckers want an immediate end to vaccine mandates via peaceful protests, Brase said.
“This crosses all genders, all races, all sexual orientations, all occupations,” he told Fox News. “Truckers might be standing up, but it’s not about the truckers. It’s about America.”
In a statement to Fox News, Meta confirmed the “Convoy to DC 2022” page was taken down.
“We have removed this group for repeatedly violating our policies around QAnon,” the statement read, referring to the conspiracy theory that devil-worshipping pedophiles operate at the highest levels of government.
Facebook announced in October 2020 that all group pages and administrators linked to QAnon would be removed, Fox News reported.
The US truckers spoke out as GoFundMe suspended a “Freedom Convoy 2022” fundraiser for their Canadian comrades that took in nearly $8 million before it was paused for review.
Thousands of truckers and other protesters descended on Canada’s capital, Ottawa, on Saturday in defiance of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Trudeau announced Monday he had tested positive for the virus after he was moved to a secret location during the heated protest. The so-called “Freedom Convoy” originally targeted a Jan. 12 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers, but grew into a larger demonstration against all COVID-19 policies.
Trudeau blasted the protesters during a news conference Monday, accusing them of using “hateful rhetoric” and violent tactics.
“There is not a right to shut down our democracy, our democratic processes,” Trudeau said.
Truckers in the US, meanwhile, say they’re eyeing March 1 as their protest date, according to a “Freedom Convoy to DC 2022” GoFundMe page.
“Up in Canada we stood up to tyrants and came together at the Capitol,” organizer Daniel Grieg wrote. “We want American truckers to be able to reach DC as well … Mandates have been proven to only hurt people, destroy businesses and people’s lives. We need to stand together to make sure our freedoms are maintained.”
