{"id":1290,"date":"2016-10-31T22:33:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T22:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/sheriffs-department-denies-surveilling-standing-rock-protesters-via-facebook-check-ins.html"},"modified":"2016-10-31T22:33:37","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T22:33:37","slug":"sheriffs-department-denies-surveilling-standing-rock-protesters-via-facebook-check-ins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/sheriffs-department-denies-surveilling-standing-rock-protesters-via-facebook-check-ins.html","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff\u2019s department denies surveilling Standing Rock protesters via Facebook check-ins"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Like wildfire, the latest viral protest spreading across the internet involves Facebook users checking in at Standing Rock, ND en masse to \u201cconfuse\u201d and \u201coverwhelm\u201d law enforcement authorities seeking to disrupt ongoing protests against the proposed path of an oil pipeline.<\/p>\n

The viral Facebook post claims that the local sheriff\u2019s department in Morton County is using Facebook check-ins to surveil and track Standing Rock protesters. The post urges users who support the protests to check in publicly at Standing Rock in order to make it more difficult to track protesters on the ground.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Morton County Sheriff\u2019s Department said it is not using Facebook check-ins to surveil protesters, calling claims to the contrary \u201cabsolutely false.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-10-31-at-11-42-47-am\"
\nAs of now, there have been\u00a0hundreds of thousands of check-ins made by Facebook users and the phrase \u201cStanding Rock\u201d has seen a massive uptick in popularity according to Google Trends.<\/p>\n

\"Standing<\/p>\n

At this point it remains\u00a0unclear where the campaign began, and where the initial idea that Facebook was being used to target protestors originated, but the now viral check-ins have\u00a0drawn a spike of attention to an\u00a0issue that has been ongoing for months. My own personal Facebook feed, mostly full of college students, has been completely overtaken by the posts, showing engagement of\u00a0social media users on a global scale.<\/p>\n

One place the engagement has not been picked up is by Facebook itself. Standing Rock is not yet trending on Facebook<\/a>, despite the level of interest shown by the platform\u2019s users. Facebook received harsh criticism<\/a> for falsely trending that Fox had kicked\u00a0Megyn Kelly off the network<\/a>, among other slip-ups,\u00a0after moving\u00a0from human to algorithmic curation. Internally, multiple tags including \u201c#StandingWithStandingRock\u201d have started bubbling up in the emerging category of Facebook Signal, but nothing seems to have crossed the threshold as an actual trend. Whether this is a deliberate move, an overcompensation by the company\u2019s algorithms, or simply normal is hard to say.<\/p>\n

With regards to the\u00a0use of\u00a0Facebook check-ins to track activity, a report from LexisNexis<\/a>\u00a0notes that\u00a0law enforcement commonly use social media to\u00a0identify suspects. However, it is important to remember that protesters in Standing Rock themselves\u00a0are using Facebook and other social media to organize efforts. Even if we assume the sheriff\u2019s department is\u00a0falsely presenting the facts, it is possible that efforts to increase\u00a0check-ins could equally thwart efforts by protestors<\/a>. Additionally, police and law enforcement use many tactics in large-scale emergency situations \u2014 Facebook check-ins would likely not be the primary tactic.<\/p>\n

One tangible thing that did come out of the increased interest \u2014 money. A Fundrazr for the Sacred Stone Legal Defense Fund<\/a> crossed its $1 million goal early this afternoon. The campaign has\u00a0been running online for 83 days.<\/p>\n

This post will be updated as we receive more information. We have reached out to Facebook and protest leaders for comment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Featured Image: ROBYN BECK \/ Staff\/Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/Kn2txTVObdo\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like wildfire, the latest viral protest spreading across the internet involves Facebook users checking in at Standing Rock, ND en masse to \u201cconfuse\u201d and \u201coverwhelm\u201d law enforcement authorities seeking to <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-1290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t