News Desk :
A Bangladeshi firm appears to have played a key role in promoting the Canada ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest online, reports Grid News.
Grid, a digital news start-up, has found increasing evidence of fringe conspiracies and violent extremism throughout the movement.
The report found that a Bangladeshi digital marketing firm was behind two of the largest Facebook groups related to the Canadian Freedom Convoy – at least until Facebook’s parent company, Meta, removed them Thursday following inquiries from Grid, reports bdnews24.com
The groups, ‘Freedom Convoy 2022’ and ‘Convoy to Ottawa 2022’, attracted a combined membership of more than 170,000 since the firm created them on Jan 27 and Jan 30, respectively.
Administrators for these Facebook groups included accounts tied to the Bangladeshi firm, as well as an apparently fraudulent ‘public figure’ page claiming to belong to Freedom Convoy leader Tamara Lich. The page was among many deactivated by Meta. Lich did not respond to Grid’s requests for comment.
The Facebook groups tied to the Bangladeshi firm promoted calls for donations to the Ottawa organisers’ GiveSendGo campaign and pointed members to convoy-related events in Canada.
Grid reached a man Thursday who said he was Jakir Saikot, the founder of the firm. Saikot agreed to an interview on the condition that the reporter conduct it by video call so Saikot could confirm the reporter’s identity. Saikot did not make himself visible during the call.
Saikot said he was not involved in the fake Lich page, but confirmed he was behind the “Freedom Convoy 2022? and “Convoy to Ottawa 2022? groups.
“It was my own choice because I believe in freedom,” he said. “We have a right to talk freely.”
Saikot said he started the groups because he believes in the mission of the protesters. He said he received no payment to conduct his social media activity supporting a protest on the other side of the world.
