Parler Users Breached Deep Inside U.S. Capitol Building, GPS Data Shows

https://gizmodo.com/parler-users-breached-deep-inside-u-s-capitol-building-1846042905

by nickthegreek • 6 years ago

77 86 6 years ago

gizmodo.com

nickthegreek2• 6 years ago

That Greenwald tweet isn't aging well. https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1348619731734028293

sibeliuss7• 6 years ago

TBH, it's almost an act of bad faith, or deliberate disinformation, to write that tweet.

eachro• 6 years ago

Yup. He could have removed the entire sentence about Parler and the tweet would retain most of its meaning.

mhh__4• 6 years ago

That describes a lot of what he gets up to these days. There's a reason why The Intercepts article on him leaving is as close as you can politely get to physically disowning him and his work.

Bootvis• 6 years ago

I was confused as the linked threat didn’t seemed to have aged particularly badly. However, lower in the thread Greenwald claims that the insurrectionists organized on Facebook and 0 of them on Parker.

nickthegreek2• 6 years ago

Thanks, I didn't realize it linked to the top thread and not the specific tweet.

"Do you know how many of the people arrested in connection with the Capitol invasion were active users of Parler?

Zero.

The planning was largely done on Facebook. This is all a bullshit pretext for silencing competitors on ideological grounds: just the start."

dragontamer3• 6 years ago

Thanks. I was about to comment about how things didn't seem to line up based off of the top-level tweet. I'm glad that yall scrolled down further than I did.

Uhhrrr2• 6 years ago

It could still be true - perhaps the arrestees weren't actively using it but other people who just wandered around and posted were.

wtfiswiththis• 6 years ago

Greenwald has been an activist for years.

I recall him finding the most tenuous of reasons to defend Assad and Putin's conduct in Syria. It kept falling apart as the regime kept conducting further chemical weapons attacks. Everything could be dismissed as some grand imperialist plot against Assad. The goal posts moved dozens of times always in reaction to further news that detailed different aspects of the chemical weapons campaign.

Greenwald kept finding ways to dismiss the citizens on the ground. Because surely RT.com knows better.

He then kept dismissing the joint international investigation team while it was in the field. Because surely Assad's own press releases know better.

After awhile he deleted his Twitter timeline[1]. Greenwald is not a journalist when he carries forward narratives like this, he is an activist. Just like when he carried forward narratives from "Guccifer 2.0" aka Kremlin during the 2016 election. What he is doing here seems really similar to his conduct from that era. He thought he found -the thing- that exempts something he want to defend from ire. Now an entire narrative is build around it. His little personal fort.

I'll never be able to forgive Glenn for using his name on Twitter to beat down Syrians who were giving first hand testimony and video evidence. He engaged against them like they were his enemy, likely because they were the enemy of his favored narrative and biases. Disgusting.

Here is an archived version of his tweet[2]. You'll need it in time after he commits another purge when he moves onto the next indefensible right wing trope he feels like picking up.

[1] https://twitter.com/im_pulse/status/1022690869139464192

[2] https://archive.vn/cmxFp

darkarmani• 6 years ago

https://twitter.com/azforeman/status/1348648808390008832?s=2...

How would he even know?

selimthegrim• 6 years ago

Does Greenwald not understand what sideloading an app is?

refurb• 6 years ago

Using Parler doesn’t mean the planning wasn’t done on Twitter and Facebook.

balozi• 6 years ago

Watch for propaganda in support of a cause.

twalla• 6 years ago

Are you implying that visualized GPS data is somehow propaganda?

gher-shyu3i• 6 years ago

What about Twitter users? Isn't this just a case of popularity?

mhh__4• 6 years ago

I think the point is more that there seems to be a narrative that no arrested Capitol-terrorists used Parler.

rbanffy2• 6 years ago

Which seems to be a matter of time now.

filoeleven• 6 years ago

From the article, the GPS data comes from photos or videos uploaded to Parler and released in the data dump. Twitter and other social media sites strip out that data, whereas Parler did not.

jonplackett• 6 years ago

Is Parler usually anonymous or something? What were these people thinking posting videos of themselves committing a crime?

mhh__4• 6 years ago

I'm normally fairly reluctant to call people stupid, but these people are obviously not the sharpest tools in the shed.

jfengel2• 6 years ago

An insurrection is only a crime if you lose. Otherwise, it's a thing to be proud of for generations.

Now, there doesn't seem to have been any path to victory for them, and that casts doubt on the rest of their judgment. But at least in the moment, they believed they were heroes.

dragontamer3• 6 years ago

They really didn't think that far ahead.

Plenty of the rioters streamed themselves live on Youtube, Twitch, and Facebook, while shouting their own names on camera.

Some of them even had their work-badges and IDs displayed during the riots, and bragged about their "accomplishments" on Facebook publicly under their own name.

cptnapalm6• 6 years ago

Perhaps they saw the take over of the Hart Senate building during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings? Or AOC leading a take over of Pelosi's office? There were some minor arrests, but not much more than slap on the hand stuff, as I recall.

sibeliuss7• 6 years ago

I don't think -- for even a single microsecond -- that anyone anywhere close to those hearings feared for the lives. It's absolutely absurd to compare the two situations.

This standard ("does anyone feel unsafe") should always be used as a check against ones haywire common sense.

malcolmhere• 6 years ago

People who have never faced consequences for their actions rarely consider the possible consequences of their actions

spoonjim2• 6 years ago

I am a "Parler User." I have an account and until it was taken down I used to check it every few days. Don't make assumptions about a person's politics from the mere existence of software on their device.

jfengel2• 6 years ago

Can we make assumptions based on their presence at a political rally, followed by their unauthorized presence in a government building?

schappim2• 6 years ago

I don't think you can. The user base != the service, and not all users are equal.

When I look at the Parler situation, I think most likely poor management/decisions were the greatest contributing factor to their current predicament.

The management probably didn't think they had a hate-speech problem until it was too late. As such, they didn't have the systems in place to deal with it, and the systems they were going to put in place were going to be tempory (as highlighted by Apple's response to their app modernisation plan).

schappim2• 6 years ago

I also signed up for Parler so I could view for my own eyes what was happening on their. It was as if Fox News and Twitter had a bad baby, and that baby was raised by the article comments on Breitbart.

mhh__4• 6 years ago

I think if you went into the Capitol Building even judicious uses of Bayes is probably going to spit out a good guess as to your politics.

hatmatrix• 6 years ago

Conditioned on the fact that these "Parler Users" were trespassing on the premises of the Capitol Building, you can build a pretty strong case that you're dealing with an insurrectionist.

BitwiseFool2• 6 years ago

I disagree, what if you were just mulling around the building? Sure, that's trespassing but that's on an entirely different level from active insurrection.

spoonjim2• 6 years ago

There are definitely the instigators and the people who are dragged along. The instigators are the people at the front who pushed down the police and murdered one of them. They should get life without parole. There are also a lot more people at the back who see a bunch of people running in, don't see what happened to the police officers at the front, and just kind of go with it. They still need to be punished, but not with life without parole.

Miner49er• 6 years ago

From my understanding they censored antifa. The platform maybe wasn't "far-right" but it seems they had a bit of a bias to the right in how they moderated.

It does seem that the userbase overall skewed far right.

noodle• 6 years ago

From my understanding, the way they moderated was to show content to 5 literally random Parler users and let them decide as a group what to do with the content.

This kind of by its own nature drags a platform in a specific direction based on where it started. It had a starting culture of being the alternative platform for conservative voices, and so over time that moderation technique would just push it further in that direction.

simonh3• 6 years ago

I agree it would be wrong to draw assumptions about individual Parker users simply due to being on the system. Plenty of journalists, pundits and just interested observers were on there just to see what it was like. But when we talk about “Parler users” generally, were really talking about members of the community compelled by and possibly contributing to the discussions.

For comparison I go on Fox News web site from time to time largely out of morbid fascination, but I don’t consider myself part of their audience because I don’t find any of it actually valuable or useful. And I say that as a self identified conservative, albeit a British one.

sibeliuss7• 6 years ago

Is there a Fox news equivalent in the UK?

nobody99992• 6 years ago

I am a "Parler User." I have an account and until it was taken down I used to check it every few days. Don't make assumptions about a person's politics from the mere existence of software on their device.

There's nothing wrong with Parler users or anyone else per-se.

There is, however, a problem with violent insurrectionists.

It's unfortunate that a small group of people planned and executed a violent attack on the seat of US government, although unfortunate is nowhere near a strong enough term for their acts.

I don't know you, but if you don't participate in violent acts to support your political agenda and respect the rule of law, I have no problem with you.

Assuming that's true, even if (and I don't know one way or another about that) I vehemently disagree with your policy perspectives, I will defend your right to hold and advocate for those perspectives. Because that's what a free society is all about.

On the other hand, those that believe it's okay to use violence, lies and intimidation to achieve their political goals have no place in a free society and should be shunned, ridiculed, and if they perpetrate acts of violence, punished.

I'd posit that anyone who believes in our constitutional system of government and the rule of law would agree with all of the above.

o-__-o3• 6 years ago

When does an insurrectionist turn into a revolutionary?

In the 1770s George Washington and ilk were insurrectionists. Now we look at them as revolutionaries. Do people who fight for change only become revolutionary when it’s an argument you agree with? Are you an insurrectionist if you fight the government to the death (literally) for what you believe in?

Obvious disclaimer: I don’t hold a candle to this fight in either direction but can empathize with both sides

dwd2• 6 years ago

You can to a degree that left-leaning users were generally banned as soon as they were identified, as the site was primarily to collect data/demographics on right-leaning voters to target for fundraising and organising. Follow the money...

anigbrowl6• 6 years ago

This isn't about you, but rather about the people who posted video that puts them at the scene of a crime. Parler-the-app doesn't broadcast location information that i'm aware of.

bmoreoutside• 6 years ago

I feel establishing indoor positioning using device GPS is questionable unless the Capitol has an indoor GPS repeater.

local_dev• 6 years ago

Extremely questionable. GPS accuracy even outside isn't perfect and GPS accuracy inside is a crap shoot depending on the building. Someone could have been walking past outside and be shown as inside the building.

kersplody• 6 years ago

The building has LTE repeaters, micro-cells, and wifi networks. A tight geo is very possible with assisted GPS.

colsandurz2• 6 years ago

Not really. To geolocate a user the cell providers would need to know the absolute position of all the LTE repeaters and cells (which they might). But they'd also need to compensate for indoor propagation (which is much more complex than outdoor).

Also AGPS only provides satellite ephemeris, which enables a faster time to fix, not better accuracy.

colsandurz2• 6 years ago

A GPS repeater would only give accurate time, not position. The repeater only repeats the signal that's captured by the antenna on the roof. I use GPS repeaters frequently in my labs to supply timing to instruments.

vel0city• 6 years ago

I'm curious what the accuracy of assisted GPS is inside such a large building. There's a part of me which thinks it could be highly accurate (probably lots of unique AP's to triangulate off known accurate locations) but on the other hand you're still deep inside the Capitol building which doesn't exactly have thin walls.

jlgaddis• 6 years ago

FTA, FWIW:

The precise locations of Parler users inside the building can be difficult to place. The coordinates do not reveal which floors they are on ... the coordinates themselves are only accurate up to an approximate distance of 12 yards (11 meters).

anigbrowl6• 6 years ago

I'm sure it will vary within the building, but suggested positions can be cross-referenced with the actual content of the video, which should be easy to geolocate in many cases (any area that's normally accessible to the public has probably been photographed many times).

hindsightbias• 6 years ago

I’m told a new meme is that Parler was a honeypot run by antifa.

seastonATccs• 6 years ago

No but there WERE many honypot posts on Parler asking people to upload their phone recordings and identify who they were. Hundreds gave their contact info and specifically what they did during the attack.

dwd2• 6 years ago

Did they filter for Parler users who were legitimately in the Capital building, such as Ted Cruz?

Parler Users Breached Deep Inside U.S. Capitol Building, GPS Data Shows

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