Heres Why Everyone On Facebook Is Checking Into Standing Rock, North DakotaBy Carey Wedler But unlike most of the corporate media, the Internet is taking note of the struggle at Standing Rock and is trying to do its part to contribute to the protests. Over the weekend, unconfirmed reports emerged that police were using Facebook check-ins at Standing Rock to track individuals who arrived at the location to join water protectors. As word spread of the apparent news, the Internet stepped up to neutralize the power of the police-surveillance state. Shortly after, Facebook users from around the country and world begancheckinginto Standing Rock, which registers as Cannon Ball, North Dakota, in an effort to confuse police. According to a statement many posters are copying and pasting: The Morton County Sheriffs Department has been using Facebook check-ins to find out who is at Standing Rock in order to target them in attempts to disrupt the prayer camps. SO Water Protectors are calling on EVERYONE to check-in at Standing Rock, ND to overwhelm and confuse them. This is concrete action that can protect people putting their bodies and well-beings on the line that we can do without leaving our homes. Others merely checked in while still others added their own commentary. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor, wrote Patrick Quinn below his check-in. Messing with fascists, Luba Petrusha commented. While the troll effort is exciting, its unclear whether the efforts are having an effect. According to Snopes, a self-described fact-checking blog whose conclusions are generally reliable, police claim they are not using Facebook to track protesters. Snopes reported [a Morton County] officer explained not only that they were not using Facebook check-ins as a gauge of anything, but that the metric presented no intelligence value to them. The rumor suggested that protesters cited Facebook check-ins as a manner in which police could target them, but check-ins were voluntary and if police were using geolocation tools based on mobile devices, remote check-ins would not confuse or overwhelm them. Snopes also claimed it spoke to protesters within a large camp at Standing Rock who said they did not issue a call to Internet users to check in. Nevertheless, they reportedly said appreciated the show of solidarity. Regardless of whether or not the online check-ins have any effect, the Internet has played a decisive role in the developing events in North Dakota. Livestreams have documented serious violations of free speech and the right to protest, and Facebook was accused of blocking such footage on at least one occasion. Amid the ongoinglack of mainstream coverage, the independent media has successfullydrawn attention to the Standing Rock protests. Considering the establishment has come out in full force in North Dakota, from their use of surveillance to their haphazard employment of heavily armed police, the increasing number of check-ins at Standing Rock shows just how much technology empowers people. Even if police arent scouring social media and the check-ins fail to produce any tangible result, the rapid mobilization of efforts highlights agrowing sense of opposition to unjust and exploitative power and thanks to the Internet, the world is watching. This article (Heres Why Everyone on Facebook Is Checking into Standing Rock, North Dakota) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Carey Wedler and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org. Snopes is annoying More annoying are the people who cite them as some Omniscient Truth Source without the slightest idea who they are. Checking in will get you listed as a domestic terrorist I bet, Biggs with Infowars got listed for attending Malheur I never trust snopes nor our government. Why dont those on Facebook just create a Meme that states they stand with The Tribe and make that viral. So much easier. We live in a world of smart devices with idiots at the controls. Others of your accursed race have, in years past, poisoned our peaceful You boast yourselves valiant, and so you may be; but my faithful I am kirig in my own land, and will never become the vassal of a SOURCE: Francis S. Drake. The Indian Tribes of the United States. Volume I have asked some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men are treated. When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men of my own I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our own with the white Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other then SOURCE: Chief Joseph Recounts His Trip to Washington, D.C. (1879). If they may oppress one, they may oppress all. This is why Martin Luther King Jr. stated that even if one is oppressed we are all oppressed. We all deserve love, life, freedom. No, Im not naive enough to be blind to true evil existing our world/s. I am not condoning evil at all, nor suggesting nothing be done to correct it. There is justice and it can be meted out justly as is needed. Destroying the Earth for profit is not just, nor is using access to the resource as a weapon. The Earths resources are for all of us if we but use them in good stewardship. Snopes is pure propaganda. Any organization that claims to have the authority on truth, usually has neither authority nor truth. Snopes is some Democratic operative and her 16-year old cat. 