Online activists trick Ottawa’s anti-vaccine convoy protesters

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Leo saw this as a way to combat what he believed to be the inadequate response of the local police, which he believed often sided with the protesters. He asked Ottawa city councilman Shawn Menard to share the link on his Twitter feed to promote the map and get his neighbors to input information.

Menard says she feels it is her duty to do so. “The site demonstrates how the organization of residents powered by technological means can allow for powerful information sharing and community crowdsourcing that paints a larger picture that is normally reserved for traditional forces such as the police,” he says. “I shared because Ottawa residents were not supported by traditional institutions.”

The project was the focus of rapid retaliation. Within hours, the site was flooded with spam. “There was some pretty striking pornographic images, racism, antisemitic material, misogyny,” Leo says. Spam has grown so much that it has had to temporarily close the site.

Leo’s activity aims to alert local residents rather than go after protesters and does not identify specific individuals. But other activists in Ottawa are taking things even further. a site, Convoy TraitorsIt uses WordPress to host photos of protesters, license plates, and company names embroidered on trucks to try to figure out who they are.

“Our mission is to document every business identified as being involved in the 2022 Trucker Convoy occupation of Ottawa,” the site’s mission statement says. “This includes truckers, supporting businesses, hotels and restaurants. By naming and labeling, we hope to enable future internet searches to reveal the true nature of these businesses.” (There was no contact information to request comments.)

another source, @ottawaconvoyreport On her Instagram, she posted photos and reels of people and trucks possibly engaged in illegal acts. The account is reminiscent of @homegrownterrorists who used his feed to name and shame people who participated in the January 6 riot in the US Capitol. On February 10, @homegrownterrorists, who remained an anonymous account, shared @ottawaconvoyreport’s information on Instagram stories shows she approves of the approach.



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