Riot Police Begin Mass Arrests at Dakota Access Pipeline, FB Censors Video

dakota-arrestsBy Nick Bernabe

It didn’t take long after the National Guard was activated in North Dakota for militarized law enforcement to descend upon the site of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Today, mass arrests began as riot gear-clad police attempted to break up Native American opposition to the construction of the pipeline, which has been halted at one location but continues elsewhere.

According to independent news outlet Unicorn Riot, at least 20 protesters, or “water protectors,” have been arrested at gunpoint along with medics and two journalists. Police issued a one-time warning to “water protectors” that any trespassers would be arrested. The warning came after several people locked themselves to construction equipment in acts of civil disobedience on Tuesday.

Unicorn Riot, which has been broadcasting live video of the tense standoff in North Dakota, says Facebook has been censoring their link from livestream.com.

Commenters on their Facebook page were also complaining they could not share the video. Screenshots posted by page followers show Facebook blocked the link.

fb-blocked-dakota-1[UPDATE: A Unicorn Riot collective member confirmed to Anti-Media via email that Facebook was blocking the video link with its “automated censorship system.”

“At a critical moment of our coverage of a Dakota Access Pipeline direct action today, Facebook’s automated censorship system blocked our video URL, shortly before two of our journalists were arrested onsite. As we started to cover today’s direct action, our collective members immediately noticed that the full Livestream event URL (https://livestream.com/unicornriot/events/6340986) was being blocked from Facebook. Posts and comments with the URL both immediately triggered popup security alerts. We tried putting the same URL through Bitly shortening and that official Unicorn Riot page post was deleted by Facebook within a few minutes. Finally we went with sharing our “Live Channel” URL on our own website which had the embed included on it.

We also verified that the “Facebook Debugger” warned that our live video URL violated “community standards”. Both Facebook and law enforcement acted to block our media distribution today, but we will not let them stop our mission to amplify the voices of people who might otherwise go unheard, and broadcast the stories that might otherwise go untold.

Also, as one member of the collective, I should point out it is obviously concerning when a large media conglomerate blocks URLs to competing video platforms.”]

A surveillance plane was also seen patrolling the protest site, reports Unicorn Riot.

Anti-Media has reached out to Morton County Sheriff’s Department for comment and will update this story if they respond.

RELATED ON ANTI-MEDIA

[This article was updated to clarify that only one surveillance plane was seen.]

This article (Breaking: Riot Police Begin Mass-Arrests at Dakota Access Pipeline, FB Censors Video) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Nick Bernabe and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Image credit: Unicorn Riot. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.

Also Read Derrick Broze’s Activist Post coverage of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests HERE.


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33 Comments on "Riot Police Begin Mass Arrests at Dakota Access Pipeline, FB Censors Video"

  1. Well, they can’t let them stop daddy warbuck’s progress. What should anyone expect in the USSA? C’mon! This ain’t your granpa’s cuntry.

  2. Those using FB and Google should be prepared for censorship as these Zio enterprises serve the New World Order, not mankind.

  3. FACEBOOK is a PLACE OF PUBLIC GATHERING.
    FACEBOOK is a PUBLIC SPACE therefore it has no right or legal option to censor participants. FACEBOOK is a PUBLICLY TRADED company, NOT a “private entity” and it solicits PUBLIC memberships. Just as cake bakers HAVE to bake homosexual cakes, and wedding planners HAVE to “accept” homosexual weddings, SUCKERberg has to accept opinions, videos, and pictures he does not like.
    The same applies to ALL “social media”, YOUTUBE, and search engines.
    A lowly COUNTY CLERK was jailed for refusing to “do her duty” by not issuing homosexuals marriage licenses

  4. This video needs editing. Very repetitive. Also don’t understand why it was blocked from Facebook. While this was overkill by LE & big waste of taxpayers money there was no actual violence. Are TBTB that afraid of injustice being depicted? Perhaps they didn’t want us to see the violation of the federal order to halt construction temporarily overriding the judge’s order ?

  5. Government always protects its’ own, destroying evidence that may help the people they are squashing. Big corporations were behind the federal policies for genocidal treatment of the Native Americans in the 19th Century, and they give them no respect now, even on what are laughingly called “Sovereign Lands” of the tribal reservations. The big boys just jump in and take what they want, the Natives be damned. It is criminal that Big Oil has destroyed graves and works to put the regional water supply at serious risk. Remember when the EPA got away with poisoning the Animas River which supplied the Navajo? Or how the government sent truckloads of contaminated water to the Navajo as relief supplies? Or when the feds sold off sacred Apache land to a foreign mining company over the tribe’s objections?

    • The Navajo Rez has had to put up with John “Songbird” McCain for decades and he is called “The Father of ISIS” as well. McCain is the Senator that allowed BP and Exxon to take tribal land? Why? Of course! They discovered a precious “natural resource” called coal and now URANIUM. McCain, the BIA or BLM never made these mega-corporation clean up these toxins when they FINALLY closed and sealed up the mine. Running water on the Navajo Rez runs YELLOW and stinks of sulfur! It has been this way for over twenty years! Flint and everyone protests? Now McCain want to RE-OPEN these horrendous mines for more URANIUM. They need everyone’s help.

    • Two faced paleface speak with forked tongue!

  6. Yo redskins remember they are the government and here to help(sarc).

  7. Excellent! Let the pagan terrorist deportations begin!
    Followed closely by construction and completion of this wonderful pipeline!

  8. You know, if I thought it would do any good I’d suggest all of you switch your social media accounts away from this dual citizen shit-machine. unfortunately it won’t, because it might create an “inconvenience” for you.

  9. What’s needed is more peaceful protesting, and dogonit, write your congressman, cause they care so much! It’s not laughter you hear in the halls of government, and justice, it’s maniacal laughter! Muahahaha! Muahahaha! Hahaha!

  10. Remember the occupation of the wildlife refuge in Oregon protesting Bureau of Land Management and government overreach? Patriot LaVoy Finicum made a short video exposing the shameful way the Government treated Indian artifacts as they were left to disintegrate in a mouse infested basement of the refuge. What happened then was the Indian tribe of whom the artifacts belonged, condemned LaVoy and not the managers of the refuge who allowed the artifacts to be used as a door jam as well. Sadly, LaVoy was murdered in an ambush set up by government thugs.
    It’s just like the quote by Pastor Martin Niemöller:First they came…”

  11. i would kill all them pigs

  12. Edgardo L. Perez-De Leon | September 14, 2016 at 5:20 pm |

    This is not China censuring the Internet/Facebook. This is the fascist-corporate state. Viva la democracia!

  13. Law enforcement, Military= Corporate Proxy’s

    • Israel monitors and controls virtually everything. It is the Rothschild’s private country that serves as basecamp for world control, destruction and enslavement.

      • If you check out the layers of Corporate ownership, you will probably discover that the Rothschilds Baking Interests own a controlling interest of probably 3-5 % of the Stock of the Mining Company. You might not be able to actually identify the Rothschilds as such, as they operate thru layers of proxies and do not always list as a Rothschild’s asset.
        The Rothschilds Banking interests were locked into the mining and lumber in the US in the middle to late 1800’s. The family has a whole town that established for them in Rothschilds Wisconsin. It’s also very difficult to get any exact names in the founding of that town, but it was established by lumber interests controlled by the Rothschilds. It’s layers and layer of secrecy that have kept their name out of the spotlight. THEY ARE INVOLVED FINANCIALLY IN EVERYTHING.

  14. The RAMBO wannabe with what appears to be a weapon with live rounds is just a kid from what I can see. How hard would it be for this little fellow to get spooked and shoot someone ? Is that what he’s there for ?

  15. Where is Barry in all of this? He plays Capt. Planet any other time a pipeline is involved.

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