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Over 10,000 Facebook Users Worldwide Falsely Check in at Standing Rock To Confuse Police (time.com) 203

More than 100,000 people from around the world have checked in on Facebook at the site of Dakota Access Pipeline protests in North Dakota, in an effort they hope will help protesters avoid detection by police. From a report on Vice:A call went out for Facebook users over the weekend to falsely check in at Standing Rock to confuse the police regarding protester identities and numbers. But it isn't clear whether the directive came from organizers on the ground at the Camp of the Sacred Stone, who call themselves Water Protectors because of the purported threat that the planned pipeline poses to Standing Rock's water supply, or whether it's a hoax. Protesters have been camped out at Standing Rock since April in response to the planned Energy Transfers Pipeline, but tensions reached a boiling point last week when protesters clashed with police and several vehicles were set on fire. Scenes of standoffs between riot police and protesters linked arm-in-arm were broadcast online via Facebook Live. Law enforcement used a sound cannon in an attempt to disperse protesters. Protest leaders in North Dakota say they were surprised by the Facebook check-in effort, but they appreciate it.
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Over 10,000 Facebook Users Worldwide Falsely Check in at Standing Rock To Confuse Police

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  • by kwerle ( 39371 ) <kurt@CircleW.org> on Monday October 31, 2016 @03:05PM (#53186601) Homepage Journal

    To no effect:
    http://www.snopes.com/facebook... [snopes.com]

    • by Guybrush_T ( 980074 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @03:27PM (#53186763)

      To some effect in fact. Even if the check-in is useless, this story brought more media attention, which can result in more protest, and more chances on the project being abandoned.

      • I'm unfaimilar with Facebook. What is "check in at Standing Rock" mean? They just list their location as being there or something? Couldn't we all just list our location as 10 feet behind Obama and see if the secret service freaks out?

        • I'm unfaimilar with Facebook. What is "check in at Standing Rock" mean? They just list their location as being there or something?

          You have it in a nutshell. Anyone who thinks that Facebook can't tell the difference between someone checking in through the web client or even checking in through the app by putting in a location instead of actually geolocating is a dumbshit.

          Now, if you took one extra step and installed Lexa Fake GPS on an Android device (or VM) without real GPS, and used that to check in on Facebook, you might have something. Not much, but something.

          Couldn't we all just list our location as 10 feet behind Obama and see if the secret service freaks out?

          You could, and they wouldn't. Although they might come to your house anyw

          • Anyone who thinks that Facebook can't tell the difference between someone checking in through the web client or even checking in through the app by putting in a location instead of actually geolocating is a dumbshit.

            Doesn't Android in it's development modes have an option for faking (overriding) the location returned by the GPS sub-system. So unless Facebook directly talks to the hardware (don't know - never used the app when I had a FB account), they shouldn't be able to know if that's happening. Of course

  • by number6x ( 626555 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @03:09PM (#53186623)

    I unrelated news, the Department of Homeland Security has added over 10,000 facebook users to the US No-Fly list, as suspected supporters of terrorism

    • by houstonbofh ( 602064 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @03:29PM (#53186777)
      Well, that would draw a lot of attention to that ridiculous list that has no real oversight...
      • So? That list has had attention drawn to it countless times. The length and irrelevance of it is a subject of jokes well outside the slashdot community. Nothing changed then why should it change now?

    • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      Well that is what they ought to do! Isn't it. I mean this facebook checkin business is about thwarting police investigation, its not really about protest is it?

      People have a right to protest, I would say in fact the right to protest on public property is frequently and wrongly trodden on. Good examples are protests outside the G8, or when states try to pass laws keeping people of public sidewalks because they happen to be to near an abortion clinic, or when a political convetion is held and protesters ar

      • by mspohr ( 589790 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @04:19PM (#53187137)

        A couple of problems here:
        - The Standing Rock tribe says the land is theirs. It was given to them in an 1851 treaty. Of course, the treaty was quickly violated as soon as the white folks wanted the land but at some point they should get their land back
        - "Defacing property" is spray painting on the blades of bulldozers... not really any damage... more like freedom of speech
        - "Interfering with a police investigation"... this is actually interfering with the police unlawful snooping on private individuals but they deny they are doing it so not really interfering with anything

        (I agree that the "no fly" list is BS)

        • by jmac_the_man ( 1612215 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @04:33PM (#53187275)

          "Defacing property" is spray painting on the blades of bulldozers... not really any damage... more like freedom of speech

          I'm not sure if you read the summary, but protestors lit a number of construction vehicles on fire, causing $2.5 million in damage.

          Also, if you spray paint on something that isn't yours (like the blade of someone else's bulldozer), that's vandalism and a crime. It's only free speech if it's your bulldozer.

          • by Khyber ( 864651 )

            "I'm not sure if you read the summary, but protestors lit a number of construction vehicles on fire, causing $2.5 million in damage. "

            I'm not sure that you've been paying attention, but it was learned that private contractors acting on behalf of the oil companies have been agent provocateurs. Wanna bet they're the ones causing the damage?

          • by mspohr ( 589790 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @05:11PM (#53187609)

            The construction vehicle fires are suspicious. They weren't anywhere near the encampment and there are no suspects. Could be false agents.
            OTOH, the construction company private army has attacked peaceful protesters with dogs, batons, tear gas, etc.

          • by hesiod ( 111176 )

            I'm not sure if you read the summary, but protestors lit a number of construction vehicles on fire, causing $2.5 million in damage.

            IMO, once you start setting things on fire and breaking shit, you should be referred to as a "rioter", not a "protester". I'm not sure where the line is on that one, but a lot of recent "protests" have crossed it and no one seems to say anything about it.

      • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @05:18PM (#53187657) Journal

        That isn't what is happening here though, here we have protesters trespassing on private property

        It's not "private property". It belongs to the tribe.

        http://www.kfyrtv.com/content/... [kfyrtv.com]

  • Love it (Score:3, Funny)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @03:10PM (#53186633) Homepage Journal
    Everyone protesting the pipeline drove their car to the protest. Classic.
    • Would you prefer it if they took some non-existent electric train?

      • Re:Love it (Score:4, Funny)

        by interkin3tic ( 1469267 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @03:50PM (#53186939)
        If they did that, trolls would be laughing about exhaling carbon dioxide. Anyone trying to do something charitable gets the scorn of basement-dwellers, logic doesn't enter into it.

        Also, not all the protest is about climate change. The pointlessly violent manhandling of the initial protesters ensured this turned into a bigger deal.

        I assume also there's something about it being native american land. Even if 100% of the native americans in question approved of it, is there a DUMBER place to route an oil pipeline through for PR purposes? I assume yosemite, yellowstone, and the grand canyon were too far out of the way, and running it through central park would have required too many permits.
        • Okay, so they are protesting against building a pipeline that will deliver gasoline to certain cities/communities in the US. And to get to the protest, they use... gasoline, which would either have been delivered from those pipelines, or which would have been imported, probably from an Islamic state that hates us. I know that a lot of people don't want the pipeline to be built, in which case, they should put their money where their mouth is and stop using cars altogether. Hey, bicycles are there, and a l
    • The US is transportation system is engineered to offer no viable alternative, mr. desperate binary apologist of a dying empire.
      • Or you could always do what we did before we had cars. And since this is mostly about supporting the natives, you could travel the way they did before Europeans came, since they completely killed off the native horse population a long time ago.

        Is that means of transportation not viable enough for you?

        • Since when did the termination of 'horse & buggy' imply the extinction of horses? Did horses die of unemployment as a result of losing the jobs and not getting food on the table? From what I understand, they would have been cut loose, made free agents free to feed off the land
      • Then maybe you shouldn't be protesting the foundation upon which your house it built.

        • Answers like these explain how the dying empire ended up with such 'choices' in a two party system. Arrogant and gleefully willful ignorance exacerbated by blind chauvinism, sectarianism.
    • Everyone protesting the pipeline drove their car to the protest. Classic.

      Everyone protesting the pipeline drove their car to the protest. Classic.

      And they managed to procure fuel, at $2/gallon without needing the pipeline.

      Say, do you know why the DAPL is going through Native American land? Because the nice people of Bismark, North Dakota didn't want it near them due to concerns that it would contaminate their drinking water. This is what's known as "white privilege": "This pipeline will poison us. Let's put it where the Indians are instead!"

  • by dywolf ( 2673597 ) on Monday October 31, 2016 @03:19PM (#53186699)

    from idiots clueless idiots calling the protestors hippies and ecowarriors.
    That how poor the reporting on these protests are right now.

    These arent tree huggers, these are Native Americans trying to protect land sacred to them.

    • by JBMcB ( 73720 )

      These arent tree huggers, these are Native Americans trying to protect land sacred to them.

      That sounds an awful lot like a press quote. Any reporting more balanced than these are hippy nutjobs or horribly oppressed freedom fighters?

      • You could look up what the protesters are saying. Then you have two sides of an issue, which is more balanced than what you've got now.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by King_TJ ( 85913 )

      Are they really?

      I talked to someone who claims he lives out there and he claims most of the protestors are people who came in from out of town. The native American Indians up there are actually not too happy about all of the outsiders congesting up the area and protesting, according to him.

      Additionally, he says more people should research the actual land situation, because the area in dispute for the pipeline is actually privately owned land (owned by farmers in the area), AND it already has a natural gas p

    • I'm puzzled why the left is so willing to genuflect to Native Americans every time they claim something is "sacred" to them. They regularly pillory Christian religions when they make a claim to some custom or place being sacred -- what makes a stone age religious practice carry more weight?

      • I'm puzzled why the right is so willing to genuflect to Christians every time they claim something is "sacred" to them. They regularly pillory Native American religions when they make a claim to some custom or place being sacred. Seriously, people are protesting antidiscrimination laws as attacks on religious liberty, and a lot of Christians seem to be convinced they're the persecuted minority. I argued with one and wound up saying that the best way for them to have religious liberty is to favor it for

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