{"id":41297,"date":"2021-06-10T13:35:57","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T13:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/32366\/Cops-Are-Using-Facebook-To-Target-Pipeline-Protest-Leaders.html"},"modified":"2021-06-10T13:35:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T13:35:57","slug":"cops-are-using-facebook-to-target-pipeline-protest-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/cops-are-using-facebook-to-target-pipeline-protest-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Cops Are Using Facebook To Target Pipeline Protest Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Police in riot gear face off environmental activists at the Line 3 pipeline pumping station near the Itasca State Park, Minnesota on June 7, 2021.<\/figcaption>
Photo: Kerem Yucel\/AFP (Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/div>\n

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Protests against Enbridge\u2019s Line 3 have been ramping up in Minnesota\u2014and so has the response from authorities. A video went viral this week of a Department of Homeland Security helicopter sandblasting protesters following mass arrests<\/a><\/span>. But some police tactics are far less visible while causing long-term hardship.<\/p>\n

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Much like the Dakota Access protests in 2016, social media has become central to getting the word out about the pipeline\u2019s opposition, with leaders livestreaming or posting about their opposition. Police, however, have turned to social media to target activist leaders and, in some cases, charge them with crimes, according to public records obtained by Earther.<\/p>\n

The records, which include thousands of emails and documents from Enbridge, local law enforcement, and state authorities spanning from 2019 to 2021, show that sheriff\u2019s officers in one Minnesota county at the epicenter of the fight over the pipeline have used social media activity on at least one occasion to target key protesters weeks or months after protests take place with trumped up charges.<\/p>\n

The Line 3 pipeline project, if completed, would carry 760,000 barrels of heavy crude from tar sands fields in Canada into the U.S. The current project is technically a replacement to an existing line originally built in the 1960s, and Minnesota is the last stretch of construction remaining<\/a><\/span> on the replacement project. Controversially, the Line 3 replacement goes through new territory in Minnesota, including the Fond du Lac reservation<\/a><\/span> and several treaty lands of Ojibwe bands. Indigenous groups have led the opposition while police have worked closely with<\/a><\/span>\u2014and, in some cases, been reimbursed by\u2014Enbridge for the past few years to prepare for large-scale civil unrest during the pipeline\u2019s construction. <\/p>\n

On January 9, a few hundred people gathered at a Line 3 construction site in Aitkin County, one of the first places in Minnesota where construction started up on the pipeline<\/a><\/span> in December. Local news reports show footage of a peaceful gathering of chanting and singing; eight people were arrested for trespassing, Minnesota Public Radio reported<\/a><\/span>, after they did not disperse following police orders.<\/p>\n

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G\/O Media may get a commission<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But summonses Earther obtained from the Aitkin County Sheriff\u2019s Office show that police used videos streamed and posted to Facebook to charge high-profile leaders in the Line 3 movement with several misdemeanor counts, including harassment, trespass, unlawful assembly, and public nuisance. These charges were filed January 27, two weeks after the actual protest occurred. (Charges against protesters arrested on the scene, separate summonses show, were filed two days later.) <\/p>\n

Two charges for the January 9 protest that used livestreamed video as a basis were filed against some of the most visible Indigenous women leaders of the anti-Line 3 movement, including Winona LaDuke, arguably the most central figure in the opposition, and Tania Aubid, who went on a hunger strike in March<\/a><\/span> to protest the pipeline. Another summons <\/strong>related to a charge of aiding and abetting trespassing was sent to organizer Shanai Matteson in late May, more than five months later, based on her Facebook activity and a livestreamed video<\/a><\/span> also available on Facebook. Per Matteson\u2019s summons, an officer watched a livestream recording of a separate January 9 event where Matteson encouraged protesters to be arrested \u201cif that\u2019s what it comes to today,\u201d and offered resources for jail support. Matteson told Earther that she did not even attend the January 9 protest at the pipeline site.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou think, \u2018oh, I can just change my Facebook settings,\u2019\u201d said Marian Moore, another organizer who was at the January 9 protest. \u201cBut then I can\u2019t reach people who aren\u2019t my friends. It feels creepy, and weird.\u201d<\/p>\n