BY 

February 14, 2022

-Newsweek

 

The fundraiser page of the Canadian Trucker protesters or “Freedom Convoy,” which has been protesting over COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other pandemic restrictions, has been frozen and appears to have been hacked.

Protesters had raised more than $8 million of funding to support their cause, as they blockade roads in the Canadian capital Ottawa and in Windsor, another city in Ontario. The protests, which have been associated with the anti-vaccination movement and the far-right, have gathered momentum all over the world.

The demonstrations began as a protest against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s requirement for truckers to quarantine if they are unvaccinated and cross the border with the U.S. But as the protests have grown, they have also been rallying against wider COVID-19 restrictions, such as lockdowns and having to wear masks. Many people have been arrested as police have tried to disperse the protesters.

Earlier on Monday, Mikael Thalen, a reporter for the Daily Dot, tweeted that the right-wing Christian crowdfunding website GiveSendGo, which hosted the Freedom Convoy fundraiser, was redirecting to the domain GiveSendGone[.]wtf.

A video from the Disney film Frozen was set as a backdrop to a statement condemning the website and the Freedom Convoy.

Thalen said that a file allegedly containing tens of thousands of names of Freedom Convoy donors has also been leaked, but that has not been verified.

The website now leads to a blank white page saying “Application under maintenance we will be back very soon.”

Newsweek has contacted the organizers of the convoy for comment.

On Sunday, a Canadian judge issued an injunction blocking money for the protesters. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an order halting access to funds collected via the GiveSendGo website, Global News reported.

On February 5, GoFundMe took down a fundraising page accepting donations to support the truck drivers in the convoy.

It comes only days after the official Twitter account for the Freedom Convoy was permanently suspended from the social media site. A spokesperson told Newsweek on February 8, the day of the suspension, that the account was permanently banned for violating Twitter rules on ban evasion.

The protests started in western Canada in January, descending on the capital Ottawa on January 28 and blocking the city’s main roads, causing chaos and disruption for the last two weeks.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency in the city on February 6, while Trudeau has condemned the protests.

The protest movement has seen its popularity rise globally, and has spread to multiple countries including France, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.

c. NEWSWEEK