by Ailan Evans
Several major media outlets have run stories over the past few days on the identities of individuals funding the “Freedom Convoy,” including names of donors that leaked during a hack of crowdfunding site GiveSendGo.
Hackers breached GiveSendGo late Sunday and leaked personal information of roughly 90,000 Freedom Convoy donors, including names, email handles, IP addresses and zip codes. The site hosting the leaked data provided it to “journalists and researchers” upon request.
The New York Times ran a story Monday that analyzed the leaked donor data and attempted to draw conclusions about who was funding the Freedom Convoy protests. The story included the full names of donors who had contributed large amounts to the convoy fundraiser, as well as comments from several donors contacted by The Times.
The story also quotes messages attached to the donations, including one characterized by The Times as “menacing.” The Times did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The Washington Post published a similar story late Tuesday that also included the full names of certain donors. The Post’s story analyzed the U.S. zip codes that contributed the most money to the GiveSendGo fundraiser, and included comments from donors
The publication contacted individuals who had contributed as little as $50 dollars to the Freedom Convoy fundraiser, according to the article.
The Washington Post is contacting people whose donation info was leaked and who gave as little as 40 dollars to the truckers to ask them why they did so
Email provided to me by a source pic.twitter.com/qbzebYyHiP
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) February 16, 2022
“We were reporting on a matter of public interest and reached out to people listed in the data in order to confirm its authenticity. We largely named people who responded on the record. We named two people who did not respond to requests for comment,” Shani George, the Post’s vice president of Communications, told the DCNF in a statement. “In both cases, they are or had been government officials. A third person named in the article was publicly listed on the GiveSendGo campaign site. We have conducted similar investigations in the past.”
Several individuals whose names were included in the leaked donor list have already begun to experience harassment and negative consequences.
Tammy Giuliani, who donated $250 to the Freedom Convoy fundraiser, told the Ottawa Citizen that she had been forced to close her business after receiving threats from individuals angry over her contribution. Marion Isabeau-Ringuette, communications director for the Ontario Solicitor General, “no longer works” for the state government after her donation to the Freedom Convoy was revealed, according to Toronto CityNews.
Canadian newspapers have also published stories attempting to identify the origins and identities of Freedom Convoy donors.
The Toronto Star published an article late Monday analyzing the leaked data to determine the portion of donations to the Freedom Convoy that came from outside of Canada. The National Post identified several already high-profile donors to the convoy in a story published Monday, though the article did not identify lower-level donors by name, while Global News wrote an entire story about one Canadian company’s $75,000 donation.
The Toronto Star, National Post, and Global News did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Ailan Evans is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Freedom Convoy Supporters” by GoToVan. CC BY 2.0.
