Facebook users check in at pipeline protest to confuse police

CBC quoted Alfred Hermida, the director of UBC’s journalism program, on the phenomenon of people posting on social media that they are at the South Dakota pipeline protests to confuse police.

It has been reported that the local sheriff’s department is tracking protesters by examining their Facebook activity.

“This is a way of virtually bringing people together to a geographical area,” Hermida said. “Social media collapses those geographical boundaries so you can say, ‘I’m standing with you, at least virtually.'”