A viral Facebook post is urging people to check in to Standing Rock Indian Reservation to show solidarity and supposedly confuse local police.
A widely-shared Facebook status on Monday alleged that local police were using social media to target protesters and disrupt prayer camps. The post urged people everywhere to use Facebook check-ins to "overwhelm and confuse" the Morton County Sheriff's Department.
In a Facebook post Monday, the sheriff's department denied using Facebook check-ins to target protest camps.
"The Morton County Sheriff’s Department is not and does not follow Facebook check-ins for the protest camp or any location. This claim / rumor is absolutely false," the post said.
However, the Sacred Stone Camp — one of the main organizers of the protest — told BuzzFeed News that they believe local police combed social media "for incriminating material and [to] monitor communications."
The Sacred Stone Camp said that there were several instances where police used social media to attempt to identify people from videos and issue arrest warrants days or weeks after alleged incidents.
"We cannot verify if they have targeted users of the FB check-in tool specifically," the Sacred Stone Camp said. "We support the check-in tactic, and think it is a great way to express solidarity."
Facebook and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe did not immediately return BuzzFeed News' request for comment.
Hundreds of people who checked in shared the viral Facebook status.
Facebook: Standing-Rock-Indian-Reservation
Many of the people who checked in from across the US and several from outside the country said they were expressing solidarity with the protesters.
A 26-year-old woman from England, who did not wish to be named, told BuzzFeed News that she answered the call to check in on Facebook because "lots of people have been feeling quietly angry for a while – and now we’ve been offered a simple task we can do on smartphones, that makes us feel useful."
The woman said that many young people in the UK who were following the pipeline controversy felt "strongly that the destruction of the habitat and the disregard for people’s homes and beliefs is wrong," but were "powerless to do much about it" until now.
"There’s also something inherently creepy about the police force or security services using social media to clamp down on protests," she said. "It’s not a surprise that people want to subvert that kind of monitoring."
Mandy Tassy, in Ohio, told BuzzFeed News that she checked in to express solidarity with the Native American people rather than to confuse police. "If I could be there I would be there," Tassy said. "It shows that you support them and that you're with them in spirit."
Facebook: Standing-Rock-Indian-Reservation
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2f1S9l8
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