The Convoy to Canberra protest and a seemingly artificially generated photograph on a protest Facebook group (Images: AAP, Facebook)

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).

The largest Facebook group for the protest that grew to have more than 177,000 members was taken offline on Wednesday. Former members claimed it had been deleted by Facebook. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been asked for comment.

Who’s behind the Facebook groups?

Meanwhile, thousands of attendees and supporters have begun to join several similarly named alternative groups set up both before and after the main group was removed. However, there is evidence suggesting the accounts behind these new Convoy to Canberra Facebook groups may not be Australians — or even real people.

The one remaining alternative Facebook group for the protests has a single administrator: James Rhondes, of Ottawa, according to his Facebook account. This account also posted in a now-removed Facebook group for the Canadian protests, Google search results show. 

Searches using major search engines and social media platforms don’t show any other evidence of someone with that name living in Ottawa. The Facebook account, which appears to have existed since at least March 2021, has almost no posts or engagement on those posts. 

The account’s profile picture appears to be a photograph of a middle-aged Caucasian male. But a number of distortions and digital artefacts suggest it’s an artificially generated image of a person who does not exist, according to Institute for Strategic Dialogue open source intelligence analyst Elise Thomas. 

Irregularities on the profile picture of Facebook user James Rhondes, suggests it is artificially generated (Image: Facebook)

Analysis by First Draft News also noted that the account’s Facebook ID doesn’t match the account name, suggesting it had been changed.

A Facebook account called Shamim Khan is the sole administrator of another Convoy to Canberra Facebook group. HIs account claims that he lives in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, features photographs of what appears to be a Bangladeshi man, and his posts are written in Bangla. 

Khan has repeatedly posted Canadian convoy-related content into the Convoy to Canberra group, including promoting links to a faux-streaming site for the Ottawa protests that requires a user to supply credit card details to use. 

Another small Canberra to Convoy Facebook group’s sole administrator is even more obvious about trying to get money. The account behind it is called Freedom Convoy 2022 Truckers and has mostly posted content relating to the Canadian protests. In now deleted posts, it repeatedly sought donations for protesters by directing people to a broken link on a WordPress blog. 

None of these accounts responded to messages.

What are the motives behind the accounts?

It’s not clear why these non-Australian and even fake accounts are creating online spaces to facilitate and promote the Convoy to Canberra protests.

There are many reasons why a user may want to have power over a Facebook group with thousands of people reading its posts. Earlier this week, Grid News reported that some of the largest Facebook groups for the Canada protests were run by a hacked Facebook account that was reportedly stolen from a real user. A statement from Meta to American media outlets on Monday suggested that scams might be a motivating factor: “We continue to see scammers latch on to any hot-button issue that draws people’s attention, including the ongoing protests.” 

It’s also not unheard of for international conspiracy or so-called freedom groups to seed events around the world by creating online spaces. Last year Guardian Australia reported on how a German conspiracy group helped create a series of anti-lockdown protests in Australia and abroad. 

In this case, the groups appear to be largely filled with Australian protesters or supporters — there’s no suggestion they are completely inauthentic. But for whatever reason, many seem by run by people who do not appear to be in Australia — or may not even exist.