Media Won't Show the Protest on the Pipeline: Picture - Hoax

Story:

This is why the media won’t show the protest on the pipeline #StayAware – at Pipeline! North Dakota.

Analysis:

A picture shared heavily on social media sites, also mentioned in some news outlets, purports to show a Pipeline protest in North Dakota comprising of massive number of people. It is also said that media is not showing the actual protest on Pipeline. The fact, however, being the picture does not show the Pipeline protest in North Dakota, but a massive crowd at iconic Woodstock music festival back in 1969.

Origin of Story

On 14 September 2016 a Facebook user Tyler Eldridge posted the photograph with the aforementioned story. The Pipeline protest in North Dakota in 2016 was spurred by the Standing Rock Sioux Nation’s opposition to a proposed oil pipeline that they say could poison nearby rivers. The 1,172-mile pipeline is proposed to enable North Dakota-produced oil reach refining markets in Illinois. The Pipeline protest has drawn thousands of protesters from across North America, but it is nowhere the size of the gathering seen in the picture (see pictures in Image Gallery).

Picture of The Pipeline protest in North Dakota in 2016 — The Pipeline protest in North Dakota in 2016

The picture taken by photographer Barry Z. Levine in fact shows a massive crowd from the Woodstock music festival back in 1969 that drew some 400,000 attendees. The second picture in Image Gallery shows another view of the public scene from the music festival. The old picture was used by the Facebook user Tyler Eldridge to create a viral hoax story around the Pipeline protest; he even accepted it in one of his follow up comments on the post later.

Picture of Massive crowd at iconic Woodstock music festival in 1969 — Massive crowd at iconic Woodstock music festival in 1969

Another Fake Protest Picture

In a related story, another popular picture is shared online to show a young girl facing an officer to protest the pipeline construction in North Dakota (last picture in Image Gallery). Again, the story is hoax, the picture in fact shows young demonstrator staring at a riot policeman during a protest marking Chile’s 1973 military coup in Santiago, on 11 September 2016.