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Insurrectionists’ social media presence gives feds an easy way to ID them
- koolba 6y agoOf all the times in the past year to wear a mask, you’d think it’d be when you’re mounting a takeover of the capital.
- shredprez 6y agoAnd miss an opportunity to protest the #plandemic? It’s like you don’t get Q at all...
- fredfoobar 6y agoIt would be brilliant if "Q-Anon" is just a psyop to flush out these morons.
- Applejinx 6y agoOh, it's a psyop, but not for that reason. It's to use these morons. To do… this, as hard as possible. This is exactly why QAnon exists, it's the payload for the entire operation.
- ogre_codes 6y agoDoesn't make a difference if you are wearing a mask when you post a selfie of yourself in Nancy Pelosi's office.
- ntsplnkv2 6y agoIf your goal was to not get caught, maybe. These people genuinely believe the lies they are constantly fed, in their eyes they will be praised as heros and want the credit. They WANTED to be seen there.
- Theory5 6y agoAnd remove your work ID badge. No joke, the guy with the flag in the picture in this article was identified by people on social media and fired... because he had his company ID badge on. These people are giving peosecuters a field day, displaying clear proof of multiple federal crimes. That guy in Pelosi's office who stole her mail (and posed for pictures of both) also gave his name.
- stingrae 6y agoI think they missed the easiest way, getting each person's ID as they exited the building.
- jessaustin 6y agoThat would probably work for these morons, but in general people don't take their IDs to protests.
- jhowell 6y agoNo, but they do take cellphones.
- rdxm 6y agolol, prob one or two stingrays floating around that area....
- pvarangot 6y agoThe police can't ask for your cellphone while you are in the limbo of being detained but not arrested. Once you are arrested they can get a warrant for your cellphone, but getting it unlocked can be a whole different issue. If you are arrested they will usually identify you via face recognition or fingerprints.
- cortesoft 6y agoI think they would have been able to arrest everyone inside the Capitol building, since everyone inside was breaking the law.
- pvarangot 6y agoYes most definitely. They also have the infrastructure to do so, but not sure they have the infrastructure to keep them arrested until everything is sorted out.
- gruez 6y agoAre they likely to face serious prison time, or is it just going to be a few years probation?
- hprotagonist 6y ago10 years from their favorite guy! https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-protecting-american-monuments-memorials-statues-combating-recent-criminal-violence/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-or...
- whoisburbansky 6y agoMost of them haven't even been arrested yet, makes you really wonder.
- ogre_codes 6y agoPolice at a scene were too busy taking selfies with them to arrest anyone.
- pvarangot 6y agoEven in a case were someone's life is at risk or an individual is armed, if you get kicked out of a building it usually takes one day until they arrest you at your house. So maybe arrests will happen on Friday. That arrests didn't happen _on the spot_ in a case like this is utterly bizarre. Arrests happen on the spot for stupider things like people partying on a parking lot and someone trying to hide or run away when the police show up to stop the noise or responding to a breaking and entering. I know of cases were actual hostages were taken or shots fired or things lit on fire, and it took the DA and the police three days to actually show up at a guys house to arrest him. His identity was all over the newspapers.
- Pfhreak 6y agoPeople have been arrested in that building for being a little too loud. It's absolutely wild that so few arrests happened.
- grawprog 6y agoSo, suddenly things like police use of facial recognition, phone GPS data and other such privacy invading measures are good? Weren't these methods being decried only just a few months ago when they were being used on the protests and riots during the summer? https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/cops-in-miami-nyc-arrest-protesters-from-facial-recognition-matches/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/cops-in-miami-ny... Another article from July from arstechnica about the very same thing written in a very different tone.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- davesque 6y agoDoes the article advocate for these practices or merely report on them? I didn't really pick up on an approving tone myself.
- scythe 6y agoThe article asserts: >In short: you don't need fancy facial recognition tools to identify people who livestream their crimes. Did you read it?
- badlucklottery 6y agoThis. I wasn't even looking for them last night and I saw hundreds of pictures from inside the building.
- bpodgursky 6y agoYeah but a ton of people livestreamed themselves during the June protests + riots + looting + etc, and there were absolutely privacy objections to doing dragnets + facial recognition over the videos they posted on on Twitter (AFAIK very little was actually done to identify and arrest the bad actors, by the percentages).
- grogenaut 6y agoa cursory search says you are incorrect... looters, rioters arrested (from one event I looked for): https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/bellevue-police-update-on-looting/281-3c682ae1-ce3e-48aa-bd1a-6fcbf1858a74 https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/bellevue-police-upd... rioters arrested (Weeks later, there was a knock at the door of Little’s Everett apartment when police came to arrest his 25-year-old son and search the family’s apartment): https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/analysis-of-seattle-protester-arrests/281-908cad06-29be-408a-9093-3f45941bc039 https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/analysis-o... sometimes the DA decides not to prosecute, or defer for misdemeanors: https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/dozens-protesters-arrested-by-seattle-police-may-never-be-prosecuted/TQMXRMHYXBFZ5KZVTMEDU2S4IE/ https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/dozens-protesters-arrested-... you don't arrest legal protesters, that's you know legal. You do arrest, or defer (in the city that had the infamous CHAZ/CHOP) arrest people breaking the law.
- stillbourne 6y agoSometimes I wonder if Parler is a government run honeypot.
- nikolay 6y agoI wonder, too. There was an indie Gab, but it didn't gain much traction and suddenly - we've got Parler!
- dimitrios1 6y agoSometimes I wonder if people have any original thoughts anymore or if free will is a lie and we are all just an amalgamation of memes that came before us.
- astrange 6y agoOf course they don't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdeterminism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdeterminism
- greenonions 6y agoThat's less plausible than the most likely scenario, which is that these idiots voluntarily attached their social security number to their pathetic insurrection. The FBI happened to just recieve all this valuable information for free.
- pengaru 6y agoThese people are the real creme of the crop. One's even wearing an employer's ID on a lanyard from his neck. SMRT
- bilbo0s 6y agoWhat's troubling to consider is that the casual nature of their brazenness really does indicate that they believe either they are doing nothing wrong, or that they are just that unconcerned with the law. During the George Floyd riots, you knew that the BLM people who protested in the morning were a bit different than the people who came to attack at night. This indicates that the people at night knew they were breaking the law. By contrast, these people, in the attack on the Capitol, were so unconcerned with law and order that they didn't even consider hiding. Things like ID tags never even crossed their minds.
- bob33212 6y agoI think most people underestimated how stupid hard core Trump supporters are. 90 percent couldn't tell you the square root of 4 or name a single city in India.
- johnmyleswhite 6y agoThat one already got fired: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/maryland-company-fires-employee-who-stormed-capitol-wearing-badge/2533568/ https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/maryland-company-fi...
- Pfhreak 6y agoAnd presumably will be in court at some point in the future.
- jude- 6y agoThat they would all be so lax is not a sign of ineptitude, so much as it is a belief that they will not face consequences for their actions.
- Alex3917 6y agoThe capital police helped them break in, so they don't exactly have much reason to believe otherwise. If Trump told them to this, which pretty much the entire media has been saying, then it then wouldn't it be entrapment to charge them?
- buzzy_hacker 6y agoI’m not sure that’s true: https://mobile.twitter.com/justinjm1/status/1347174957613199360 https://mobile.twitter.com/justinjm1/status/1347174957613199...
- Alex3917 6y ago> protesters outnumbering cops "100 to 1" That's the relevant point, not whether or not the cops removed the barrier. The cops knew that hundreds of protesters were planning in on breaking into the capital building to assassinate senators, and purposely didn't send anyone to stop them. The whole thing was literally planned in public on social media.
- sudosysgen 6y agoIIRC there is a budget in the hundreds of millions meant specifically to protect that building.
- ehsankia 6y agoThanks for sharing. A lot of the narratives about police helping them did seem a bit over the top. The videos don't look great but it's also easy to cherry pick videos and photos to make it look like that. That being said, it still doesn't explain how lenient they were on the mob, while in other instances during summer protests they were far more aggressive. In the very scene where the girl got shot, if you look from a different angle, you see there were a dozen riot police behind them doing basically nothing [0]. I have yet to find a satisfying explanation for it, considering the protesters were literally smashing doors and windows. [1] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ9oThRuMVs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ9oThRuMVs [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PAVTZIM5ks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PAVTZIM5ks
- krona 6y agoStrangest 'insurrection' I've ever seen. More like an Instagram photo op. Still, they'll spend the rest of their lives in prison.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y agoOn what planet do you'll think they'll spend the rest of their lives in prison? They'll get a couple months max.
- favorited 6y agoTrump will pardon them, unfortunately.
- dragontamer 6y agoThey literally killed a cop. This is deadly serious now.
- stale2002 6y agoThe single individual or 2 who killed the cop will likely get decades of prison, yes. But you are living in fantasy land if you think that hundreds or thousands of people who were in any way related to the rioting will get anywhere near the same amount of jail time. So yes, for most of them it will be a couple months max and a felony in their record.
- dragontamer 6y agoOver 50 officers were injured, and one is now dead. You're underestimating the scope of the violence that took place on Wednesday.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y agoThat story was retracted, the officer is still alive: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/politics/capitol-police-officer-dead-after-riot/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/politics/capitol-police-offic... But yes, while I agree that those who actively attacked police officers will get more jail time, those who essentially treated it like a mob-tour of the Capitol will not.
- scrps 6y agoNot that I was that worried that "revolution" was currently happening but when I saw nice juicy high-res face pics my first thought was 2-3 days max before HRT or the US marshals are kicking down doors. The effort was so low.
- aussieguy1234 6y agoOnce their name is found on social media through their photo, it would not take much effort to go from there to their LinkedIn and find out who their employers are. As we've seen in the past, it's not hard to call a company out on Twitter with information about what their employee has been up to and I reckon it's likely that this will happen.
- coldcode 6y agoThe guy wearing a Navistar badge was identified by the company and promptly fired.
- aussieguy1234 6y agoSure enough: https://twitter.com/CsweeneyArtist/status/1347337160240848898?s=09 https://twitter.com/CsweeneyArtist/status/134733716024084889...
- recursive 6y agoDo most people have linkedin accounts? For some reason, I thought it was mostly aspiring thought leaders and people trying to sell books or recruiting.
- conro1108 6y agoPractically every white-collar worker that I know (barring some security folks) has a linkedin account. It's certainly the norm in my circles.
- Acrobatic_Road 6y agoStop going after people's livelihoods.
- wussboy 6y agoStop going after democracy and I'll think about it.
- 6y ago
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoFor more than a decade now people on the mainstream parts of the internet have been casually joking about the getting on lists, the feds glowing and generally being mindful that the internet is well monitored and if you're gonna do something stupid you should leave your phone somewhere it can ping a tower to produce an alibi. I don't think anyone who's more than a spur of the moment participant on either side of things is making the dumb opsec mistakes that the author and these comments are portraying as typical.
- louwrentius 6y agoA cynic could think that social media and the Internet exist for the sole purpose to aid law enforcement / the government. In the series Person of Interest, a joke is made where 'Harold' (a main character) claims to have invented social media exactly for this purpose.
- dboreham 6y agoLaw enforcement people constantly tell us that you can never underestimate the stupidity of criminals. Whether or not they're correct I don't know, but they keep saying it.
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoI bet they get a lot of sampling bias.
- chaostheory 6y agoThis is why I'm against censoring. It's a treasure trove for law enforcement and intelligence officers when dealing with criminals and terrorists.
- tbihl 6y agoHopefully your reasons extend further, but yes, having all speech out in the open is extremely healthy for myriad reasons.
- chaostheory 6y agoAssuming that you're being sarcastic, your logic is great as long as people who share our beliefs and convictions own and control important platforms. What if something like parler were to gain dominance instead and they start censoring? That said I believe in private property and FB, Google, and Twitter have every right to do what they want on their respective platforms. If people don't like it, then market forces will create alternatives.
- readflaggedcomm 6y agoMore would have died otherwise.
- aaron695 6y agoIt's almost like they are not insurrectionists. Whoops, now I'm the insurrectionist. Or is it terrorist? I lose track of what to think, it changes everyday, this stuff is hard.
- op00to 6y agoNo, taking the US Capitol by force is insurrection.
- 3131s 6y agoAnd yet the people that work there every day do far worse on a regular basis.
- refurb 6y agoAmazing how quickly the narrative was set and the media picked it up right? Laying siege to a federal courthouse in Portland and attack police with weapons for months on end? “Mostly peaceful protests” A bunch of wacko Q-anons force their way into the Capitol building and take selfies? “Insurrection!” I’m waiting for the mainstream media to start calling for “insurrectionists” to be held at gitmo without trial.
- ehsankia 6y agoYou mean how quickly the right wing media made up some completely made up narrative with altered and misleading photos trying to rebrand known white supremacists and QAnoon followers as antifa and BLM protesters? And how quick these people who constantly complain about "MSM fake news" were to spread it all over the internet without any fact checking on their end? It wasn't even a mistake, it was clearly intentional. The photo of Q Shaman was intentionally cropped to remove the QAnon sign, and the phillyantifa website was clearly listing white supremacists. The people spreading that knew all this, yet they still decided to spread it.
- refurb 6y agoYou should stay away from the fringe right-wing websites.
- fencepost 6y agoI'd be much more interested in the people who look like they were there with intent - like the one stepping across seats (in a gallery?) carrying a bunch of restraints and wearing tactical gear, a very concealing mask, a hat with flaps completely covering his ears, etc. That's a person expecting and prepared for trouble and likely working to not be recognized (fully and concealingly masked with no identifying marks in the middle of a crowd of anti-maskers). I suspect if he had a phone with him it was turned off.
- favorited 6y agoHis phone was strapped to his chest with the camera facing out, presumably recording or streaming. https://www.nxsttv.com/nmw/wp-content/uploads/sites/107/2021/01/GettyImages-1294932395.jpg https://www.nxsttv.com/nmw/wp-content/uploads/sites/107/2021...
- nine_k 6y agoCould be a burner, or even without a sim card, recording only. No SIM card is not a complete defense, but still makes detection and identification somehow harder. Flight mode also helps somehow.
- gvd 6y agoLet's not forget that most of these bozos can be ID-ed by just drawing a geo-fence around their phone records.
- spdustin 6y agoNo aerial surveillance was in the air at the time—at least, none of the typical aircraft that show up on OpenADSB during protests in D.C.—so one hopes that there are ground-level IMSI catchers or something similar in use around the Capitol.
- ehsankia 6y ago> the people who look like they were there with intent I've heard some of the interviews with them, and almost all of them claimed they were there to undo the stolen election, and some also mentioned wanting to hang all democrats... so it's not like their intentions were hidden.
- jimbob45 6y agoGenuine question: would you guys be saying the same “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” about the Boston Tea Partiers if you’d lived back then and they’d failed? I think I would. IMHO either you cross the Rubicon or you don’t. None of this shaking your foot over the water’s edge at your enemy and then acting surprised when they shoot your foot off. Also I realize I’ve mixed historical events and I apologize.
- majormajor 6y agoShouldn't the first question be "would you find the case for the insurrection against the British persuasive"? I certainly see no reason to give these folks the compliment of comparing their movement to that one... And then the second question would become "how competent were the people involved, and how effective was their action?" Where the answer to both seems to be "not very" for these idiots. Why are people insisting on making ridiculous comparisons between things that have the same rough outline but wildly different material circumstances. It's like some people can only see things in abstractions and not realize that individual situations are unique and need to be judged in their specific contexts.
- chillwaves 6y agoWhat are these idiots protesting? Trump's bruised ego? Your comparison is a great disservice to history.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tannhaeuser 6y agoWondering what politicians come up with regarding social media in general, as this incident plus above-average social media presence now finally demonstrate without any doubt their polarizing and amplifying effect, not to speak of foreign influence.
- disgrunt 6y agoDoes that imply that you had doubt when a dozen or so cities were on fire as a result of protesters over the summer? If so, why?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- __MatrixMan__ 6y agoCan't help but imagine a site that advertises: "If you stormed the capitol, fill out this form so Trump can pardon you on his way out." And then they just get arrested instead.
- CapitalistCartr 6y agoThis was, in fact, an insurrection, fighting between the President and the Congress. And the local police took the President's side. This is the sort of crazy nonsense we used to laugh about happening in Third-World countries during the Cold War. Even the Soviet countries were better than this.
- erichocean 6y agoEvery agrees Donald Trump just led an insurrection, including the Senate Majority leader, a Republican. Why is Trump not in custody?
- zmmmmm 6y agoBecause, almost insanely and extremely worryingly in itself, it seems the Mueller investigation concurred with the controversial opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Presidents are above the law. So he has to be impeached first, then indicted.
- erichocean 6y agoCan Trump be arrested for treason on Jan 21st, after Biden is inaugurated?
- zmmmmm 6y agoIANAL but that is my understanding, yes. There is a theory that a lot of his desperation to remain president is due to a tsunami of legal problems that are all waiting for him to leave office. Not sure what veracity that has but his desperation to stay in power certainly is consistent with it.
- tbihl 6y agoThe instinct to arrest political enemies is one of the really bad telltales of authoritarianism, so people generally steer well clear. Unless you think that an example needs to be set so Biden and future presidents know not to act similarly, I see very little good that could come of martyring such a lightning rod... You could get an insurrection that looks hard to defeat, rather than one that merely embarrasses law enforcement.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- dukeofdoom 6y ago70+ million voted for Trump. This is a widely supported populist movement, which is only going to get stronger in the next few years as people rebel against further lockdown and having their livelihoods destroyed. The left should be careful about who they label as terrorist and insurrections. People generally don't admit to being wrong. And backing his supporters into a corner, by projection will not go well.
- krapp 6y ago>The left should be careful about who they label as terrorist and insurrections. People generally don't admit to being wrong. And backing his supporters into a corner, by projection will not go well. So... we should be careful not to call the Trump movement terrorists or what they did insurrection, otherwise... what? What does "backing his supporters into a corner, by projection will not go well" mean? Violence? Sorry, more violence? Sounds an awful lot like a threat of terrorist intimidation to me. But I don't know. I mean, I don't want the Proud Boys to slip an IED under my car so I guess I should go along with it? For the good of the country? In fact we probably shouldn't arrest any of them. What insurrection? What pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails? Let's just make it so nothing they do is illegal - we don't dare threaten them or their self image, after all. Who knows what they might do? They can storm the Capitol as many times as they want. Hell, the next time they run a car into some protestors, we'll even cut their auto insurance premiums!
- dukeofdoom 6y agoYou are not going to arrest millions of people. Thats just fantasy, unless you want full on civil war. For all the contempt you feel for Trump voters, they feel the same for you. This thing escalated when it could have been resolved with just a proper audit of the vote totals by and independent panel in the disputed states. The supreme court should have taken the case, and resolved it. Unfortunately the Supreme court chickened out. And the disputed states governors fought tooth and nail a proper audit. As a result Trumps people protested a contested election because they feel cheated. Some of them breached the barricades in the legislature. A Small group of them entered just for kicks and selfies. There's no reason to label all of them terrorists, there was no violent intent for most of the protesters. Its called "The Peoples House" after all, and Democrats have occupied legislatures too during protests. You need to consider that human being are very sensitive to being treated unfairly. Right now its looking like an extreme double standard will be applied with how the BLM protesters were treated and how these protesters will be treated.
- nostromo 6y agoLoot Target: "political activism" Burn down a police station: "political activism" Occupy several blocks of a major American city for several months and declare independence: "political activism" Occupy the capitol for a few hours: "insurrection"
- cultus 6y agoGet a grip you fascist.
- sonotathrowaway 6y agoAh yes, they were just political activists. The pipe bombs, zip ties, and plans to kidnap politicians are all famous non-violence tactics.
- nostromo 6y agoI oppose all political violence, left and right. The point is we should be consistent in condemning violence, regardless if it's your thugs or your opponent's thugs doing it. A year of media-sanctioned violence in our streets, cheered on by many politicians publicly, paved the way for the shitshow we saw yesterday.
- epakai 6y agoMaybe we should consider addressing real issues before they become violent protests. The BLM protests called out real injustices with some being more clear-cut than others. The violence at protests was often used to discredit the movement. This gave conservatives cover to brush aside any demands for change. I understand condemning violence, but if you use the other hand to enforce the issues that lead to protest it seems insincere. I think this is why the Obama admin had some success quelling BLM protests while they became worse again under Trump. I think the general dismissal, and backtracking on Obama's reforms resulted in what we got.[0] Some might even attribute those changes to manufacturing an "other" in order to solidify political support. The protest in the capitol yesterday was based on a fantasy: Trump's refusal to accept his loss, and continued reinforcement of election conspiracies. How can you address what has already been explained, but one side refused to accept? [0] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/07/police-consent-decrees-trump-administration-oversight https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/07/police-conse...
- hourislate 6y agoI actually enjoyed the shit show. Too bad BLM and Antifa (although many have been ID in the Capital Buildings) didn't join, along with 10's of 1000's of other Americans to show them how fed up the American public is with Washington and their bullshit. What a great wake up call it could have been. Now they will go back to Corporate whoreship after things settle down....
- chillwaves 6y agoYou are assuming the intentions of the rioters yesterday were just "antigovernment" when they were really "pro-Trump," who is head of the federal executive branch, last I checked. He has been whipping them into a frenzy for the last 4 years. Do you not see the irony in Trump calling out the government constantly when he sits in the most powerful seat?
- hourislate 6y agoIs that why John Sullivan - founder of the far-left organization "Insurgence USA" and BLM of Utah was there filming and participating? Who would have thought he was a Trump supporter. It's well known that there were many Anarchists there along with Antifa and BLM activists. It's just the media won't feed that story since it doesn't fit their narrative. You and I will never know the whole story or the truth...
- ashtonkem 6y agoThe funny thing is that a few years ago they would’ve all proudly worn scary masks, but now that performative anti-masking is a purity test on the right a lot of them decided to go and conspicuously show their faces.
- ashtonkem 6y agoI think a lot of wannabe insurrectionaries are having a real emotional hangover this morning. Realizing the the FBI is asking uncomfortable questions cannot feel good. The guy who sat in the speakers chair said through his lawyers he has “regrets” and “got caught up in the moment”. Uh huh, sure. That’s a long way to say “I got caught”.
- SergeAx 6y agoGuy on the right wears his job ID card, fwiw.