Facebook said in a statement that it had “no evidence,” the teen was part of the Kenosha Guard Facebook group or its event. But the company had the opportunity to take action on the militia group’s Facebook event before the deadly shooting, according to users.

One Kenosha resident named Nathan, who asked to use his first name only, told Engadget he reported the event page for the Kenosha Guard on Tuesday afternoon. “I was nervous about them taking up arms against protestors in Kenosha,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if I could classify it as a hate crime or violence but Facebook only gives you one option so I chose violence.”

An hour later, he received a response from Facebook: “The event was reviewed and though it doesn’t go against one of our specific Community Standards, we understand the event or something shared on it may still be offensive to you.” 

Engadget

He wasn’t the only one to report the event and receive such a response. The screenshot matches another posted to Twitter, and one shared by The Verge, which reported “at least two” people had reported the event prior to the shooting on Tuesday night. 

Following news reports of the shooting and militia groups’ involvement at the protests, Facebook confirmed the group had broken its rules, which were updated last week to address militia organizations and supporters of QAnon. Under the latest policy, Facebook says it will remove pages and groups associated with these movements if they call for violence. 

In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said the company had designated the shooting as a “mass murder,” and removed the shooter’s Facebook and Instagram pages. The company also confirmed it had taken down the Kenosha Guard group and the event page.

“We’ve designated this shooting as a mass murder and have removed the shooter’s accounts from Facebook and Instagram,” the spokesperson said. “At this time, we have not found evidence on Facebook that suggests the shooter followed the Kenosha Guard Page or that he was invited on the Event Page they organized. However, the Kenosha Guard Page and their Event Page violated our new policy addressing militia organizations and have been removed on that basis.”

Facebook’s statement didn’t address why the company didn’t act on the reports from users if the Kenosha Guard event did in fact violate its rules. But the company has been criticized in the past for uneven enforcement of its community standards. A civil rights audit of the company’s policies, released earlier this year, warned of the dangers of extremism on its platform.

Facebook’s takedowns come after two protestors were shot and killed Tuesday night by “a young White man carrying a rifle,” according to The Washington Post. It’s not clear if the shooter was part of the “Kenosha Guard” group.

The page was removed while I was writing the piece, but here are a few of the recent posts, for posterity. pic.twitter.com/qH8snPiVK0

— Russell Brandom (@russellbrandom) August 26, 2020

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the company is investigating the incident. The social network announced last week that it would remove accounts and groups that discuss violence, including “militia organizations” as an expansion of its “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy.” The crackdown resulted in the removal of hundreds of groups, pages and ads linked to militia groups and “those encouraging riots,” Facebook said at the time.

The latest removals aren’t the first time the company has cracked down on extremist groups linked to violence after a deadly shooting. The company banned “boogaloo” groups in June, after one supporter was charged with murdering a California security guard and sheriff’s deputy.

According to Vice, the government has responded to this uprise by shooting rubber bullets and stun grenades at protestors, arresting them, as well as trying to block certain parts of the internet.

Our partners in #Belarus say authorities have:

cut an uplink carrying 50% of foreign traffic
blocked dozens of sites incl. some independent media & alternative voting sites
blocked a number of VPN services #Internetshutdowns taint elections. Belarus must #KeepItOn

— Access Now (@accessnow) August 9, 2020

Access Now, a nonprofit on digital rights, had tweeted recently that authorities in Belarus had blocked not just Twitter, but also access to various media sites and even some VPNs. NetBlocks, an organization that monitors internet freedom, also tweeted that Belarus had been “largely offline” since Sunday. Local journalists have reported that their VPNs are blocked as well.

Update: It has been almost 24 hours since #Belarus fell largely offline after a series of worsening internet disruptions during Sunday’s elections.

Real-time network data confirm the incident is ongoing, limiting freedom of expression and assembly

https://t.co/JcBhvhgVcR pic.twitter.com/Siz33QIFqU

— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) August 10, 2020

Belarus joins the ranks of other countries who have blocked Twitter during times of conflict, which include Venezuela, Turkey and Egypt.

“This report shows that an enormous number of Americans — probably without even knowing it — are handing over their full location history to shady location data brokers with zero restrictions on what companies can do with it,” Senator Elizabeth Warren told BuzzFeed News. “In an end-run around the Constitution’s limits on government surveillance, these companies can even sell this data to the government, which can use it for law and immigration enforcement.”

Mobilewalla CEO Anindya Datta told BuzzFeed that the company produced the report to satisfy its employees’ curiosity. Supposedly, Mobilewalla doesn’t plan to share info about whether specific individuals attended the protests with clients or law enforcement.

But the incident is a reminder that data brokers have access to massive amounts of data from unassuming individuals. There’s a chance that data could be used by law enforcement or be leaked — as we’ve seen happen in past data breaches. Some fear that individuals concerned about their data being swiped might avoid protests, so in effect, the practices of collecting data may suppress free speech.

At the moment, in the US, there are no federal laws preventing this type of info from being abused. Warren previously opened an investigation into government contracts held by local data brokers. Tim Cook has called for a regulatory body to oversee data brokers, and in 2018, Vermont passed a first-of-its-kind law to hold data brokers to at least some standards and to punish them for misuse. In the EU, officials have used the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to go after data brokers for violating laws on personal information privacy. 

Until the US has similar regulations in place, individuals will have to piece together tools and best practices to protect their privacy.

Engadget has reached out to Mobilewalla for additional comment.

While there isn’t a whole lot you can do against a cop with a can of mace and an itchy trigger finger, there are plenty of ways to protect your safety, identity and personal data when you’re out exercising your First Amendment rights.

You’ll have to do more than follow the Wu-Tang’s advice to protect ya neck if you want to avoid the wrath of the police, you’ll need to protect your whole damn head. The cops have recently taken a page out of Chile’s playbook and started aiming rubber bullets at protesters’ (and especially journalists’) faces and eyes. As such, you’ll want to carry a set of ANSI Z87+ certified ballistic eye protection with you while protesting. They might just save your vision. And for gods’ sake, bring an umbrella to ward off the pepper ball volleys.

“Targeted attacks on journalists, media crews and news organizations covering the demonstrations show a complete disregard for their critical role in documenting issues of public interest and are an unacceptable attempt to intimidate them,” Carlos MartÍnez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told the Columbus Dispatch. “Authorities in cities across the U.S. need to instruct police not to target journalists and ensure they can report safely on the protests without fear of injury or retaliation.” 

Protecting your identity, unfortunately, isn’t as simple as sliding on a pair of specs. Numerous police forces throughout the US have partnered with facial recognition firms like Clearview AI to identify protesters and potentially intimidate them into silence. To keep your identity under wraps, you’ll want to keep your head under wraps as well. Unfortunately, using makeup and hair styling such as CVDazzle to ward off computer vision systems will not do you any good. 

Besides being designed to thwart technology that is now close to a decade old, CVDazzle is only capable of confounding the facial recognition algorithm itself — it doesn’t prevent tracking based on your build, clothing or walking gait. Plus, should a human review the video, they’ll easily be able to spot the one member of the crowd running around looking like A Flock of Seagulls on acid. What’s more, once the tear gas starts flowing, wearing contact lenses and eye makeup — really any oil-based product, including sunscreen — can exacerbate the gas’ irritating effects. Jip van Leeuwenstein’s “surveillance exclusion” mask or Jing-cai Liu’s wearable face projector both run into the same issue. They may be able to fool an algorithm but they’re easy to spot with the human eye. 

No mask? Tension nahin Leneka! Simple hai! pic.twitter.com/NSNPMikDZ3

— Ronit Bose Roy (@RonitBoseRoy) April 20, 2020

Instead, you’ll want to wear a mask that covers as much of your face and head as possible and keep it on. Assuming you don’t have access to one of URME Surveillance’s photo-realistic 3D-printed masks that fool AIs into thinking you’re the company’s president, you can easily make a balaclava out of any old t-shirt you have lying around. If possible, wear your existing N-95 or cloth mask underneath it. We’re still in the midst of a global pandemic here people and the corrupt power structures of this nation will not tear themselves down if you’re laid up in the ICU. 

The Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America recommends that protesters practice the same counter-COVID procedures we’ve spent the last three months perfecting. That includes staying six feet apart and avoiding physical contact whenever possible, though the police may have a different opinion on that latter point.

Since you’ll be spending a lot of time on your feet and likely running from the police at some point during the demonstration, it’s important to pack light. At the bare minimum, bring along a personal first aid kit, snacks, any medications you need, as well as a couple bottles of water, not only for hydration but to help rinse out your eyes in the event of a tear gas attack. Liquid Maalox works too as does a mix of 3 teaspoons of baking soda to 8.5 ounces of water, which is the mix that the Hong Kong protesters swore by. Most importantly, make sure your friends and loved ones know where you are going, when you plan to return and then check in regularly.

Take extra sharpie pens. Take a notebook. Write a bail fund or your lawyer’s number on your arm in permanent marker. Take water. Take more water. Take liquid antacid. Take a friend, or make one when you get there.

— Linda Tirado (@KillerMartinis) June 2, 2020

The most important thing you can bring with you is a phone, however, it can become a liability if you fail to properly secure it against unauthorized snooping. Luckily, that’s easy to fix. First and foremost, turn off your FaceID and fingerprint readers — the police can force you to unlock your phone using these methods if you’ve been detained but they’ll have a much harder time trying to crack through a 9-digit pin that you’ve conveniently forgotten due to the stress of your arrest. 

Second, encrypt your phone. It’s easy to do for both Android and iOS. If you’d prefer not to risk your primary phone being damaged or confiscated during the protests, pack along an older model that you’ve wiped of all personal data or splurge on a burner phone that you can simply ditch after the demonstrations have ended. Do not, under any circumstances however, reuse that phone for any reason other than protecting your identity while protesting. I mean, that’s literally the point of having a burner in the first place.

Third, do not — and I cannot stress this enough — communicate using the phone’s standard voice and text features. Download and use Signal instead so that your conversations can’t be easily intercepted. Be sure to turn on the Disappearing Messages function to delete conversations after they’ve been read. Heck, it’s even got a handy automatic facial blurring tool to help protect the identities of your fellow protesters. 

Speaking of which, if you plan to document your experience at the protest, follow the basic rules of photography etiquette. Specifically, avoid filming the faces, scars, tattoos and other identifying features of your fellow protesters before posting them. While you’re at it, turn off the geotagging and location tracking features for every app on your phone to help obfuscate where and when the image was captured. And in the event that you’ll catch the cops being bastards, take a read through Teen Vogue’s most excellent guide to safely and ethically filming the police.

Perhaps the most insidious threat you’ll face while protesting isn’t the tear gas, attack dogs or billy clubs, it’s having location data siphoned from your phone and used against you. International Mobile Subscriber Identity catchers — more commonly known as the Stingray, though that’s only one of the broader class of cell-site spoofing (CSS) systems — are employed by law enforcement organizations across the country. They act as mobile cell towers, offering unwitting smartphones the strongest available signal strength in the area to induce the phone to connect, upon which the CSS will record the phone’s IMSI and then release the phone back to the regular network. Since the ISMI is generated by your carrier and stored on the phone’s SIM card, it can be linked back to the account holder allowing the police to track your whereabouts. For more information on the nuts and bolts of Stingray technology, the EFF has put together an authoritative guide to their operation. 

Their full range of capabilities remains a mystery, however it appears that keeping your phone in airplane mode unless you’re actively using it to make calls can help mitigate some of the risk, though carrying a burner phone can mitigate that to a much higher degree. The Apple and Google stores are both stocked with counter-IMSI apps such as Android IMSI-Catcher Detector (AIMSICD), SnoopSnitch, Sitch, GSM Spy Finder, and Cell Spy Catcher though none have proven particularly effective against the catchers.

Apple Music is also participating, saying it cancelled its regular Beats 1 radio schedule and steering users toward a streaming station that celebrates the best in Black Music. It will also host a playlist designed to unite users, with regular intermissions explaining the protests and movement. Deezer and Tidal Music also tweeted support.

On Tuesday, June 2nd, Apple Music will observe Black Out Tuesday. We will use this day to reflect and plan actions to support Black artists, Black creators, and Black communities. #TheShowMustBePaused #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/xkvn31DpYc

— Apple Music (@AppleMusic) June 2, 2020

Meanwhile, event organizer Live Nation will close its offices today, while ViacomCBS channnels MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central will “go dark,” the company said. Def Jam Recordings, Interscope, Sony Music and others will also participate. Artists expressing support include Lady Gaga, the Rolling Stones, Quincy Jones and Billie Eilish.

However, some have criticized the day, saying it’s unfocused and doesn’t address the protests and Black Lives Matter movement directly. Don Giovanni Records owner Joe Steinhard told Rolling Stone that the movement is “misguided” and that labels should be supporting existing initiatives like Black Lives Matter. Others noted that the industry is sacrificing little for the blackout day, while Tony! Toni! Toné’s Raphael Saadiq said record labels should pay artists more.

It’s also unclear what level of action the labels are taking. While Columbia records said that today is “not a day off” but rather a way to reflect, Warner Music CEO Steve Cooper wrote that “everyone can take a day out from their jobs.” Some labels, including Capitol records, promised to make donations to black rights organizations, but haven’t provided specific calls to action for employees.

On their website, however, Thomas and Agyemang did address the industry’s inequality. “[It is] an industry that has “profited predominantly from black art,” the site states. “It is the obligation of these entities to protect and empower the black communities… in ways that are measurable and transparent. This is not just a 24 hour initiative. We are and will be in this fight for the long haul. A plan of action will be announced.”

In October, the employees, Maren Costa and Jamie Kowalski, told The Washington Post that Amazon contributes to climate change by supporting oil- and gas-company exploration with its cloud computing business. Both employees say they were subsequently called into meetings with human resources, where they were accused of violating the company’s external communications policy. Costa says she then received an email from a company lawyer, who claimed future violations could “result in formal corrective action, up to and including termination of your employment with Amazon.” Kowlanski says she received a similar email.

In a statement provided to The Washington Post, Amazon spokeswoman Jaci Anderson said the company’s external communications policy “is not new and we believe is similar to other large companies.” As part of its overall communications rules, Amazon tells employees they may speak out on social media, as long as they do not share confidential business information.

The incident speaks to the growing trend of employees calling out large tech companies on everything from their environmental policies to workplace diversity, sexual misconduct, human rights policy and “retaliation culture.”

It also speaks to the issue of Big Tech companies clamping down on employee criticism and protests. Most recently, the National Labor Relations Board instructed Google to remind employees that they can speak freely about workplace issues, after employees alleged they were fired for union organizing, a claim Google denies. As the tech labor movement continues to gain momentum, incidents like these will likely become more common.

Engadget has reached out to Amazon for comment.

According to Reuters, Cook said Apple based the decision on “credible information” from Hong Kong police and Apple users. Those sources said the app was used to “maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present.” That kind of behavior would violate App Store guidelines prohibiting personal harm.

Critics argue that the app does not show the location of individual officers, so it could not be used to target law enforcement as Cook described. They say there’s no evidence that the app has been used to threaten police or public safety and that apps like Waze, which crowdsources information about police locations are still in the App store. So, while Cook was likely hoping to set the record straight and quell the controversy, plenty of people are still upset with the decision.

We’ve asked Twitter for comment. However, Xinhua‘s campaign appears to target at least some people in Hong Kong proper.

This kind of behavior isn’t shocking. The Chinese government has been clamping down on critics who voice dissent on Twitter, even though the service is blocked beyond Hong Kong. The country has been determined to control the political conversation on social networks whether or not most Chinese can see them. In that regard, this is just an extension of its current tactics.

It does put Twitter in an awkward position, though. While the social site is no stranger to attempts at political manipulation, it’s now faced with China using ads as propaganda weapons to silence political opposition. If it keeps the ads running, it risks alienating Hong Kong and free speech advocates. At the same time, blocking ads from a major government-supported publication could provoke a harsh response with difficult-to-predict consequences.

The company won’t have much choice but to respond. The Russian agency said it would treat continued promotion as “interference in the sovereign affairs” of the country and consider Google a “hostile influence” ostensibly bent on obstructing elections. Officials would have the “right to an adequate reaction,” Roskomnadzor said.

We’ve asked Google for comment.

There’s no mystery as to why Russia is raising the objection. Protests have continued to grow (the most recent as of this writing had about 50,000 participants), and they’ve turned increasingly from the Moscow-specific complaints to general dissatisfaction with President Putin’s anti-democratic policies. A crackdown on YouTube would theoretically stifle attempts to rally these protests and maintain the status quo.

As in the past, this leaves Google in a difficult spot. Complying with the demand could hurt political freedom in Russia and hurt YouTube’s reputation in the country, but defying it could lead to Russia blocking some or all of the video service. Neither choice is ideal for either free expression or YouTube’s bottom line.