A review of 80K+ Freedom Convoy 2022 donations reveals a Bangladeshi digital marketing firm was behind two of the biggest Facebook groups promoting the events
As American politicians call for stateside convoys, a Grid investigation finds signs that foreign actors, QAnon and hate pervade the movement's support.
Grid News
Context & Ripple Effects
Grid's donation review lands mid-movement: American politicians were already calling for stateside convoys when the outlet traced two of the largest pro-convoy Facebook groups back to a Bangladeshi digital marketing firm, with the same investigation flagging foreign actors, QAnon and hate content pervading the movement's support. The finding extends a documented playbook rather than breaking new ground — QAnon followers had earlier hijacked the #SaveTheChildren hashtag by infiltrating parenting Facebook groups, and Facebook and Google had previously been used to target an anti-refugee ad campaign in swing states for a conservative nonprofit.
What makes this data point distinct is the operator profile: not an ideological network but a commercial marketing shop, suggesting convoy promotion sat alongside paid-audience work. That fits the pattern later detailed in the BJP's vast WhatsApp group network, where crafted posts for mass groups became standard political infrastructure.
First-order effects
American politicians pushing stateside convoys are now amplifying a movement whose biggest promotional channels trace to a foreign commercial operator, complicating their framing of a grassroots protest.
Facebook faces immediate moderation questions over two of its largest convoy groups being run by a digital marketing firm, since its group product is the delivery mechanism for the reach Grid documented.
Second-order effects
Advertisers and platform-trust teams at Facebook must weigh that group-based reach can be purchased or operated by parties with no stake in the cause they promote, raising the cost of treating large groups as organic communities.
Rival platforms and researchers will face pressure to replicate operational attribution of this kind — tracing group operators through payment and donation records — as the baseline for judging whether movements are grassroots or manufactured.
Third-order effects
If commercial operators keep running political mobilization as a service, the line between activism and paid audience-building collapses structurally, making group size meaningless as a signal of genuine support.
Regulators scrutinizing platform liability will find in this case a template argument: the harm flows through ordinary group features, so disclosure rules would have to target who operates an audience, not just what content appears in it.
The trend: Political mobilization is increasingly routed through large social-platform groups run by commercial or foreign operators, forcing attribution work to shift from content analysis to identifying who actually controls the audience.
Scoop, story incoming: Facebook groups tied to American offshoots of Canada's “Trucker Convoy” are being run by fake accounts tied to content mills from Vietnam, Bangladesh, Romania and several other countries, the company confirmed to NBC News on Friday.
@oneunderscore__
Ben Collins on x
There are now at least a half-dozen convoy groups with over 10,000 followers, and not all of them are being run by fake accounts. Here's Facebook's full statement. Story coming soon. https://twitter.com/...
@jason_paladino
Jason Paladino on x
look havent we considered that a bunch of Bangladeshi dudes who happen to work at facebook content mills are just really passionate about the Canadian truckers???!
@bcb_sara
Sara Sanchez on x
Every time I turn around Facebook (or Meta, or whatever) has allowed something to happen on their platform that is actively hostile to democracy. Great reporting here. Be sure you check out the full thread and article: https://www.grid.news/... https://twitter.com/...
@paulatics
Paula Simons on x
As a member of the Standing Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications, I think there are some important questions that need to be asked of Facebook about the allegations reported here. I hope to ask some myself. https://twitter.com/...
@davelevitan
Dave Levitan on x
Well this all sure isn't getting any *less* strange https://www.grid.news/...
@tedcruz
Ted Cruz on x
There is a common thread between the Biden White House trying to silence Joe Rogan and the Canadian government trying to silence the truckers: The truckers and Rogan say things that the autocrats can't control. https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint
Jason Kint on x
Maybe when Facebook was able to bury its purge of up to 13 mil “spam” accounts in arguably the hottest point in its history - April 2017 - we should have cared a bit more what those accounts were actually doing and how “active” they were despite Facebook's misleading comments. ht…
@icromwell4van
Ian Cromwell on x
The signs of fraud are too strong to ignore. The “freedom convoy” is a put-up job; not at all the grassroots expression it's desperately trying to brand itself as. This fugazi astroturfing exercise has taken a huge toll on the people of Ottawa and across the country. https://twit…
@ziahaiderrahman
Zia Haider Rahman on x
Anyone know how the Bangladesh connection arose here? https://www.grid.news/...
@dabeard
David Beard on x
The secret money and Bangadeshi marketing firm backing the truckers' convoy in Canada. Oh, and QAnon, too. https://www.grid.news/...
@gmbutts
Gerald Butts on x
Grassroots movement. https://twitter.com/...
@noahjnelson
Noah J. Nelson on x
We're all being played for chumps. And it's working. https://twitter.com/...
@benjaminopowers
Benjamin Powers on x
We at @gridnews are continuing to cover this story cause it's not over - DMs are open and email in bio. https://twitter.com/...
@mattnegrin
@mattnegrin on x
These should objectively be called Facebook Convoys https://twitter.com/...
@_karenhao
Karen Hao on x
Excellent scoop from Ben. Here's my piece from November explaining why this isn't the first and won't be the last instance of overseas content mills entering a political fray. https://www.technologyreview.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@vivekdotca
Vivek Krishnamurthy on x
@gridnews is consistently delivering more insights on how the occupiers are using and abusing social media than anyone else. Major props to their team. https://twitter.com/...
@chrisanethery
Chris Nethery on x
Hey @JustinTrudeau Before you go blaming American right-wingers, maybe you should talk to the experts at @csiscanada . Well-funded Canadian/Sri-Lankan radicals? https://www.grid.news/... What does it mean? 🤔
@twiceanya
@twiceanya on x
@BySteveReilly ... and here. we. GO. How foreign actors, QAnon and hate groups pervade the convoy movement's support: https://www.grid.news/...
@noupside
Renee DiResta on x
This dynamic seems to happen now whenever there are mass protests because a lot of people are looking for certain terms and spammers glom on, create pages, grow audiences. Reminiscent of the content farms that got in the game during the 2020 BLM protests. https://twitter.com/...
@rexchapman
Rex Chapman on x
This is insane: “Many of the groups have changed names multiple times, going from hot-button political issues like support for former President Donald Trump or opposition to vaccine mandates, to names with keywords like “trucker,” “freedom,” and “convoy.” Facebook allows...” 1/2…
@nandoodles
@nandoodles on x
The trucker convoy is — you guessed it — a grift to collect ad revenues. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@jordanonrecord
Jordan Fischer on x
In my own reporting yesterday about the convoy groups, @jaredlholt told me they were framing them as protests against the government specifically because they know that causes Facebook to back off. See FB's statement to @oneunderscore__ below supporting that notion. https://twitt…
@joshkovensky
Josh Kovensky on x
This story makes me realize: the truck protests represent the arrival of hartals in the west https://www.grid.news/...
@jordanonrecord
Jordan Fischer on x
More evidence the “trucker protest” is anything but. https://twitter.com/...
@jordanwildon
Jordan Wildon on x
The Trucker protests are really testing the terms we have to describe online manipulation. Not only are there organic elements, but also foreign funding through campaigns, copycat groups and pages administered from other countries, right-wing US media advocating for them...
@broderick
Ryan Broderick on x
At a certain point, I think we just have to accept that conservative online spaces are so full of grift, fraud, violent extremism, astroturfing, and misinformation that it is actually no longer possible to organize an “authentic” conservative movement online. https://twitter.com/…
@noupside
Renee DiResta on x
“Manipulation” or “misinfo” are solid terms for describing some components of online influence but this is, simply, how influence works today. In any networked activism/protest movement that captures widespread attention, groups w/varying motivations pile in: money or ideology ht…
@jordanwildon
Jordan Wildon on x
This from Renee hits the nail on the head of exactly what I'm getting at and describes it in a much more nuanced and informative way. https://twitter.com/...
@bystevereilly
Steve Reilly on x
UPDATED: The founder of the Bangladesh marketing firm — who insisted he was not paid for his Facebook group work or in contact with organizers — gave @the_nazmul of @UCBerkeleyIRP an entirely different version of events in a separate interview last week. https://www.grid.news/...
@carnage4life
@carnage4life on x
I find it infantilizing that people are more likely to believe that Facebook turned gramps racist than that someone who grew up in a world where Black people had to sit in the back of the bus and couldn't attend the same schools or live on the same block would be racist today. 🤔 …
@anildash
@anildash on x
This has been true for some time. https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon
@blackamazon on x
If people were willing to include racism , on the acting AND analysis side ? This would be easier but they won't and they few time s they do they under resource it to hell https://twitter.com/...
@hiattb
Brian Hiatt on x
“We will get fooled again” is currently our national motto https://twitter.com/...
@kylegriffin1
Kyle Griffin on x
Overseas content mills are behind much of the Facebook support for trucker convoys: Facebook groups promoting American trucker convoys are being run by fake accounts tied to content mills in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Romania and several other countries. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
@sjdemas
Susan J. Demas on x
We see this playbook every time and social media companies do not care. https://twitter.com/...
@profcarroll
David Carroll on x
Nothing has changed. Facebook is still optimized for scamming gullibles and susceptibles with content fraud. Only thing that's changed is internal reports have leaked that Facebook knows its platform is perfectly optimized for content farms and their fraudulent tactics. https://t…