How foreign purchased Facebook ads are promoting Canada as a 51st US state?

January 23, 2026

By Ahmed Al-Rawi

Using “51st State” as the search term, I found over 1,300 ads on Facebook Library referencing this term. Though the majority of ads were against the idea of Canada joining the US, there were a few ones that promoted Canada as a 51st state. The advertising messages suggest polarizing clickbait combined with commercial exploitation of political keywords to attract engagement. Some of the ads contain sensational and overtly political-sounding titles (“Why Canada's Collapse is Closer Than You Think!”, “Make Canada American Again”) alongside pages that appear commercial or generic. This pattern is consistent with short-lived or disposable pages often used in coordinated ad campaigns or opportunistic marketing.

The Appendix contains a selection of 6 ads advertising for such an idea. These ads are all purchased by foreign actors mostly based in China, and it seems that they are largely meant to brand certain products like t-shirts by exploiting this issue. Most of the Facebook pages have very limited number of followers and many of them are created recently. For example, the Facebook page of one advertiser, Make Canada American Again - The Movement, does not exist anymore. The ads targeted Canadian audiences. However, four out of the 6 selected ads also targeted external audiences especially in the EU.

Some of the key observations include the fact that several ads are paid by entities registered in China, Hong Kong, and Bangladesh, or by pages with contact information pointing to Chinese companies (e.g., Chongqing Ziyi Baodan Technology Co., Ltd., purelumes, Zbelles). Also, some advertiser entries list U.S. addresses or U.S. sounding names but the payer or operational footprint traces back to foreign companies. One advertiser lists a fake address in Canada, B.C., Surrey using a non-existent website (http://freedomnorth.ca/).

Appendix

Ad (1):

https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=867947226189615

Page: Spiral-Live Chat

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575661264612#

Location: Not available

Payer: Chongqing Ziyi Baodan Technology Co., Ltd. (Based in China)