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That鈥檚 the moment when the group made an abrupt 鈥� and decisive 鈥� break with used blenders and baby clothes. In the last gasp of normalcy, someone posted pictures of a life jacket for a small dog for sale that was swiftly overshadowed, two minutes later, by a post with a photo featuring Donald Trump in a garish yellow outfit.聽

It signalled what would soon be revealed as a digital coup: this was now a group for Canadians who loved the then-former American president.

Some seemed to welcome the change, but dozens more flooded the group鈥檚 feed, perplexed by the new direction. 鈥淚鈥檓 just here looking for a bookcase,鈥� read one bewildered post. Another user claimed to have talked to the group鈥檚 moderator, who鈥檇 she said had been hacked. But the new stewards of the group were unfazed, and over the next two years, the name of the group would be changed a half-dozen times before hitting algorithmic gold a month ago with 鈥淐anadians for the 51st state and Elon Musk for Governor.鈥�

On its own, the case of a potentially hijacked Facebook group could easily be brushed off as the work of an online chaos agent looking to rattle cages or sell a few T-shirts. But the transformation of a local buy-and-sell hub into a political meme factory also illustrates something more pernicious: with a federal election looming 鈥� and as data suggests one in four Canadians get their news from Facebook 鈥� it鈥檚 an example of how bad-faith actors can help make controversial, misleading or even unthinkable ideas catch on.

It鈥檚 not like, all of a sudden, everybody is going to agree with one Facebook group鈥檚 new direction and want Canada to be the 51st state, says David Shipley, the CEO of Beauceron Security, a Canadian cybersecurity company. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not how this game is played.鈥�

But with nearly 18,000 members, Canadians for the 51st state is one of the loudest pro-annexation voices on the single most influential social media platform. And, over time, the influence of it and other voices could begin to nudge open the door to a shift in opinion, Shipley says.

The result is a 鈥渟low and steady shift of public perception.鈥�

A stranger in a strange land

Even after many of Alina Mlynarski鈥檚 friends fled Facebook for the more esthetic pastures of Instagram, she stuck around for the recipe groups, the cute animal posts and the ease with which she could buy and sell items locally. In early March, she opened her feed to see an image of Elon Musk making a hand gesture identical to .

At first, she figured it was an unwanted post surfaced by Facebook鈥檚 mysterious algorithm, but then she noticed it鈥檇 been intentional; she鈥檇 been served the image because she was a member of a group she鈥檇 never seen before: 鈥淐anadians for the 51st state and Elon Musk for Governor.鈥澛�

In confusion, she typed out a message: 鈥淚 never joined this group. How did this happen?鈥� Then she read through posts from other users wondering where the buy and sell option had gone 鈥� which seemed to solve the mystery.

Still, she wondered why she hadn鈥檛 been notified that the original group had changed so significantly. She exited the group, but the unease lingered: 鈥淚 was upset to see that my name was listed as part of this group as I did not want to be associated with anything that was being posted,鈥� she said in an email.聽

鈥淚 don鈥檛 always read or click everything on my feed when I check Facebook,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 am concerned that this can happen again.鈥�

The group鈥檚 abrupt pivot from a sales message board to adopting a 鈥渧ery partisan bent鈥� suggests the group was hacked or even sold, says Alexei Abrahams, the digital research lead for the Media Ecosystem Observatory, which first noticed the group and has been archiving its posts. (A spokesperson for Meta said they鈥檇 determined the group did not violate their Community Standards, but in an emailed statement said they鈥檇 removed specific posts that had done so. We 鈥渆ncourage users to report content that goes against our policies,鈥� the statement read.)

This shows how some users or ideas can take 鈥� or purchase 鈥� an outsize megaphone in the digital town square, Abrahams says. His team鈥檚 work includes tracking the digital reach of notable politicians, media organizations and influencers in Canada and he points out that it tends to be a relatively small group of people who actually get noticed online.

鈥淭hat attention economy is real,鈥� he says. 鈥淓veryone can speak, but not everyone can be heard.鈥�

In the case of Canadians for the 51st state, the group鈥檚 administrators now have access to an audience of 17,800 members. Of course, the new focus promptly alienated a bunch of users, but the presence of such a big group devoted to the 51st state-idea also makes the concept look like a thriving proposition to outsiders.聽

Selling Facebook groups is not allowed. ( banned the practice in 2018, violates its rules about spam.)

While the scope of the market is unclear, there is still evidence it happens, says Mika Desblancs-Patel, a data engineer on the MEO鈥檚 digital trace team.

He points to one online marketplace, viewed by the Star, that advertised Facebook groups for sale, such as one where people advertised cash jobs in Surrey, B.C., a buy/sell group in Gatineau, Que., and several sites devoted to the purchase of steroids. This particular marketplace, which exists as a website of its own, saw over a hundred posts per year, each advertising at least one group, with costs between US$50 and $250 鈥� though Desblancs-Patel notes that many users recommended just approaching the owner of a group directly.

The value of a group varies based on the size of the audience, how niche the market is, and how engaged the members are, he explained. 鈥淎ctive groups are much more valuable than groups with bots or inactive users.鈥�

In his research, he鈥檚 found that the motivation to buy tends to fall into one of two camps. For some buyers, their interests simply overlap with the group鈥檚 鈥� perhaps, for example, you want to sell steroids to people who have a stated interest in buying them.

In other cases, the buyer is just on the hunt for a big audience.聽

The search for identity

After the Hamilton buy-and-sell group came out for Trump in early 2023, it seemed to suffer an identity crisis. After a period of relatively quiet activity punctuated by the occasional anti-Trudeau post, the site began toggling through a series of rebrandings using far-right talking points. In June 2024, it became 鈥淐anadians Against Pride Month,鈥� triggering another wave of member exits. By July, it was 鈥淐anadians for Donald Trump,鈥� and then 鈥淢ake Canada Use a Toilet Again鈥� (a reference to a racist far-right trope about immigration) by early this year.

Then, at the end of February, it hitched its wagon to the latest source of online political outrage 鈥� and clicks. 鈥淐anadians for the 51st state and Elon Musk for Governor鈥� saw a sudden, noticeable uptick in engagement, from clips of right-wing American podcasters, incorrect information about vaccines and Amazon links to 51st state merchandise.

The Star sent Facebook messages seeking comment to all four of the current group administrators, who did not respond. The only account that has been an administrator since the group鈥檚 buy-and-sell days is now an administrator on a slew of other, mostly smaller, groups, including 鈥淩estore Soviet Borders: end the chaos,鈥� 鈥淎rrest Hunter Biden鈥� and 鈥淎bortion is Murder.鈥� The other administrators also help run groups focused on largely American far-right topics.聽

Seeing Facebook accounts suddenly switch to politics once they reach a certain size is a known tactic in misinformation campaigns, says Shipley, the Beauceron Security CEO. 鈥淚f you can鈥檛 build it, hijack it,鈥� he says.聽

Suddenly, a bunch of group members are contending with a firehouse of right-wing memes, and while some might be swayed, he says this tactic is less about convincing a captive audience and more about giving the concept of Canada as a 51st state more prominence and finding new adherents along the way. Many Facebook groups are targeted towards a specific community, meaning that it becomes possible to target messaging at people who live in a particular area.聽

Of course, there鈥檚 the fact that having a large group devoted to the idea gives it credibility, plus larger, more established groups are also less likely to run afoul of Facebook’s rules and get shut down, Shipley adds.聽

The people running this group may not even be that devoted to the idea of Canada joining the US, he adds. Sometimes, getting eyeballs is about selling ads, or marketing merchandise.聽

鈥淲e always think that it鈥檚 Vlad and the Russians behind everything,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut some people just want to sell crappy 51st state T-shirts and hats.鈥澛�

But there is the risk that this kind of messaging starts to leak into public perception in Canada, a particularly urgent prospect with an election looming. Right now, polling suggests only nine per cent of Canadians are open to joining our southern neighbours 鈥� though that number is higher among Conservatives and Albertans 鈥� and tension between the two countries has become the backdrop to the campaign so far.聽

One of the reasons social media represents a chink in our informational armour is we tend to consume it so passively, Desblancs-Patel says. We do this, he adds, in part because we feel like we鈥檝e curated our own feeds and feel like we don鈥檛 have to be on guard the way we might be consuming other types of information.聽

But this shows that the information we ingest is vulnerable to political meddling, and your feed may not be entirely your own.聽