{"id":905,"date":"2021-11-20T12:36:17","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T11:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/20\/clock-these-name-changes-has-this-facebook-group-been-politically-catfishing-pedestrian-tv\/"},"modified":"2021-11-20T12:36:17","modified_gmt":"2021-11-20T11:36:17","slug":"clock-these-name-changes-has-this-facebook-group-been-politically-catfishing-pedestrian-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/20\/clock-these-name-changes-has-this-facebook-group-been-politically-catfishing-pedestrian-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Clock These Name Changes, Has This Facebook Group Been Politically Catfishing? &#8211; Pedestrian TV"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p><input data-id=\"Email Address:input\" type=\"email\" name=\"email\" value=\"\" required=\"required\" class=\"form-control\" placeholder=\"Enter Your Email For Daily News\"><br \/><input data-id=\"Email Address:input\" type=\"email\" name=\"email\" value=\"\" required=\"required\" class=\"form-control\" placeholder=\"Enter Your Email For Daily News\"><br \/>A Facebook group is facing allegations of political catfishing as it was named after a series of political views and trending movements including being for, then against, lockdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom Rally Australia is a Facebook group currently posting information and sharing content promoting the anti-lockdown rallies across the country. As in, the very same rallies where people <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pedestrian.tv\/news\/melbourne-imre-pelyva-pandemic-legislation-rally-man-charged\/\">allegedly threatened to hang Victorian Premier <strong>Dan Andrews<\/strong><\/a> (extreme yikes).<br \/>The group was first created in 2013. However, if you look at their About page, it appears they weren\u2019t always against lockdowns.<br \/> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\t\t\tif (typeof siteads.queue !== 'undefined') {\n\t\t\t\tsiteads.queue.push( {\"site\":\"pedestriantv\",\"pagetype\":\"article\",\"ad_type\":\"article\",\"sec\":\"news\",\"amp\":false,\"article\":\"fb group anti lockdown pro lockdown cleo smith political catfishing\",\"article-tags\":[\"Facebook\",\"Lockdown\",\"Cleo Smith\"],\"native\":[\"null\"],\"paid\":\"true\",\"has_jw_player\":\"false\",\"ad_location\":\"mobile-mrec\",\"targeting\":{\"ptv-pos\":\"1\"},\"provider\":\"google-dfp\",\"element_id\":\"ad-slot_mobile-mrec_section-index-1_pos-1\"} );\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t<\/script> <br \/>Back in March 2020, the group appeared to be in support of lockdowns when they ran under the name \u201cSTAYTHEFUCKHOMEAUSTRALIA\u201d. Before that, they changed their name to \u201cCrisis Help Info Australia Wide\u201d.<br \/>In April 2020, they went by \u201cMade and Owned in Australia Support Group\u201d. By August this year, they were \u201cWestern Australian Preppers\u201d &#8211; just some casual Doomsday speak thrown in. Then on the 21st of October, they named themselves after the Cleo Smith case &#8211; \u201cBring Cleo Home\u201d &#8211; before changing it to \u201cFreedom Rally Australia\u201d.<br \/>If you don&#8217;t believe me, take a look at this screenshot of their Facebook Group History, which is visible for anyone including people who aren&#8217;t in the group. The screenshot was first alerted to us by 7News Perth reporter <strong>Ben Downie<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ben_Downie\/status\/1461482554985312263\">Twitter<\/a> who described the group&#8217;s history as <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ben_Downie\/status\/1461483621013864450\">&#8220;nakedly opportunistic&#8221;<\/a>.<br \/> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\t\tif (typeof siteads.queue !== 'undefined') {\n\t\t\tsiteads.queue.push( {\"site\":\"pedestriantv\",\"pagetype\":\"article\",\"ad_type\":\"article\",\"sec\":\"news\",\"amp\":false,\"article\":\"fb group anti lockdown pro lockdown cleo smith political catfishing\",\"article-tags\":[\"Facebook\",\"Lockdown\",\"Cleo Smith\"],\"native\":[\"null\"],\"paid\":\"true\",\"has_jw_player\":\"false\",\"ad_location\":\"out-of-page-mobile\",\"targeting\":{\"ptv-pos\":2},\"provider\":\"google-dfp\",\"element_id\":\"ad-slot_out-of-page-mobile_section-index-1_pos-2\"} );\n\t\t}\n\t<\/script><br \/>In the about section of the Facebook group, a spokesperson for the now named \u201cFreedom Rally Australia\u201d defended their decision to previously name themselves after the Cleo Smith case, and encouraged previous members who didn\u2019t agree with the new topics associated with the group to leave.<br \/>\u201cWhy the name change? This group had multiple names in the past before it was changed to \u2018Bring Cleo Home\u2019. When she went missing, [the] admin felt it could assist the family with an existing group as a platform with WA members so the name was changed temporarily.<br \/> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\t\t\tif (typeof siteads.queue !== 'undefined') {\n\t\t\t\tsiteads.queue.push( {\"site\":\"pedestriantv\",\"pagetype\":\"article\",\"ad_type\":\"article\",\"sec\":\"news\",\"amp\":false,\"article\":\"fb group anti lockdown pro lockdown cleo smith political catfishing\",\"article-tags\":[\"Facebook\",\"Lockdown\",\"Cleo Smith\"],\"native\":[\"null\"],\"paid\":\"true\",\"has_jw_player\":\"false\",\"ad_location\":\"mobile-mrec\",\"targeting\":{\"ptv-pos\":\"2\"},\"provider\":\"google-dfp\",\"element_id\":\"ad-slot_mobile-mrec_section-index-1_pos-2\"} );\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t<\/script> <br \/>\u201cAfter that change, a member advised [the] admin [that] there was already an existing group for her. That group link was shared and pinned as an announcement and this one was paused.\u201d<br \/>Then they changed their name to support the anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine rallies seen across the country.<br \/>Interestingly, their about page does not address the fact that they were previously operating under the name \u201cSTAYTHEFUCKHOMEAUSTRALIA\u201d &#8211; the name of which aggressively suggests to me they were once pro-lockdown.<br \/>Seeing this raises a few questions. Who is behind this group? What are their actual views and are they merely taking advantage of the dominant attitude at the time per every name change? If you ask me, the sheer fact they went from being apparently pro-lockdown in March 2020 to anti-lockdown a good 16 months later, and also jumped on several social issues and trending news topics implies to me that they have could have been politically catfishing for clout or some ~other reason~.<br \/>PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to Facebook and the group&#8217;s admin for comment but they did not reply at the time of publishing.<br \/> <a href=\"#\"><\/a> <br \/>There are no more articles to be viewed<br \/>Loading<span>.<\/span><span>.<\/span><span>.<\/span><br \/><input data-id=\"Email Address:input\" type=\"email\" name=\"email\" value=\"\" required=\"required\" class=\"form-control\" placeholder=\"Enter Your Email For Daily News\"><br \/>Sign up with your Facebook<br \/>or Linkedin account<br \/>Please select at least one of the following options to continue<br \/>By signing up, you agree to Pedestrian Group&rsquo;s Terms of Service and consent to our Privacy Policy.<br \/>Already registered? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pedestrian.tv\/login?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.pedestrian.tv\/news\/fb-group-anti-lockdown-pro-lockdown-cleo-smith-political-catfishing\/\">Login here<\/a><br \/>Login with your Facebook<br \/>or Linkedin account<br \/><label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" class=\"ez-hide\"> Wanna be remembered?<\/label><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pedestrian.tv\/news\/fb-group-anti-lockdown-pro-lockdown-cleo-smith-political-catfishing\/\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Facebook group is facing allegations of political catfishing as it was named after a series of political views and trending movements including being for, then against, lockdowns. Freedom Rally Australia is a Facebook group currently posting information and sharing content promoting the anti-lockdown rallies across the country. As in, the very same rallies where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}