Facebook accounts with fake pictures of non-existent people — based in countries such as India and Canada or anonymously requesting donations — are helping run the Convoy to Canberra by creating Facebook groups for the protests.
Last week thousands of people from around Australia descended on Canberra in an anti-government, so-called freedom protest. Taking inspiration from a similar protest in Ottawa, the protests are ostensibly about vaccine mandates but also feature a smorgasbord of anti-vaccine, conspiracy and fringe complaints.
Like many similar protests against COVID-19 public health restrictions during the pandemic, rally-goers answered influencers and groups using social media to call for action. In the case of the Canberra convoy, platforms such as Facebook and Telegram have been used to advertise the protest and coordinate attendees, whereas crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe and GiveSendGo have been used to raise money (unsuccessfully in some cases).
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