Crowdfunding site for Canadian ‘Freedom Convoy’ disabled in possible hack

That was later replaced with a page stating: “Application is under maintenance we will be back very soon.” As of 11:15 a.m. EST, the site was still down. The website’s administrators could not be immediately reached for comment.

A post on the news leak website Distributed Denial of Secrets said it was making Freedom Convoy donor information available solely to journalists and researchers, including self-reported names, addresses, Zip codes, and IP addresses from the GiveSendGo platform as of February 13. It offered 30 megabytes of information.

The GiveSendGo website has sparked concerns that foreign donors could be fueling anti-vaccine protests in Canada, where protests against a vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers have morphed into a broader movement against coronavirus restrictions.

On Sunday, Ottawa declared a state of emergency as protesters blocked off streets and blared horns. Ottawa police have reported that 1,000 vehicles, 5,000 protesters and at least 300 counterprotesters clogged city streets.

An Ontario court on Friday ordered protesters to end their blockade of a key bridge connecting Canada with the United States, but protesters said they would appeal the order. Many protesters defied an order to end the blockade by 7 p.m. Friday. Authorities there have referred to the blockade as a “siege” and an “illegal occupation” that has moved beyond the boundaries of peaceful protest.

Automakers Ford and General Motors have said they have cut production and canceled shifts at some sites due to the blockade, while a representative for Canada’s auto industry told an Ontario court that the estimated cost to the economy was nearly $40 million per day.

The city’s police chief said last week that the convoy was benefiting from national and international logistical and financial support, including a “significant element” in the United States.

Earlier this month, the crowdfunding site GoFundMe said it had removed a fundraiser supporting the convoy because it had violated its terms of service, although an initial $1 million had already been distributed.

Donors then flocked to GiveSendGo, raising close to $9 million, founder Jacob Wells said on Fox News Sunday.

“People are vowing to never use GoFundMe again because of the ideological stances that they’re taking,” Wells said. “We take a neutral position. We allow people to fundraise, period.”

Wells said money has been transferred to protest organizers in Canada from fundraising accounts linked on the site. He said his company is looking at “a wide variety of options” to get funding to the protest organizers in Canada despite the court order there.

Amarnath Amarasingam, a professor who studies religious political movements at Queen’s University in Ontario, said GiveSendGo has become the chosen crowdfunding platform for the far right.

It started as a little-known platform for niche Christian charity causes but garnered widespread publicity after raising funds for Kyle Rittenhouse, Amarasingam said. The teen was acquitted in November of all charges related to the August 2020 shootings in Kenosha, Wis., that left two men dead and another wounded. The case set off national debates about guns, race, vigilantism and self-defense.

GiveSendGo “has become kind of the go-to platform for people who think their campaigns are going to be taken down, similar to what Gab or Parler became for online content,” Amarasingam said Monday in a phone interview.