Many Canadians are sure to remember the June 2011 Vancouver hockey riot. The occasion marked the beginning of a new kind of mass-mediated criminal event that unfolded on social media as it did in real time.
Police gathered online materials as evidence. By Oct. 2011, authorities had processed more than 30 terabytes of data, over 5,000 hours of video and nearly 30,000 photographs. A team of more than 50 forensic video analysts logged over 4,000 hours to process these materials. The last sentences were handed down to rioters in 2016.
As the FBI investigation into the Capitol rioters is just getting underway, our American friends might glean some important lessons from the 2011 Vancouver riot.
First, the investigation will take time, possibly years. This will surely frustrate the public, but is necessary to ensure due process is followed. It is crucial to make sure the legal rights of the accused are respected so that we can avoid miscarriages of justice that might occur as a result of expediency.
Second, sometimes the evidence online is not what it seems. Consider suspected Vancouver rioter Brock Anton, who boasted on Facebook about assaulting police officers and setting cars on fire. Anton’s post went viral and was republished in numerous media outlets. In response to the post, many social media users called for the expansion of police powers and even to reinstate the death penalty in Canada, as I detail in my book “Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of New Media.”
More than a year later the public learned that Anton, who was at the riot, did not actually do any of the things he bragged about. He made it all up. We know this because investigators were able to determine he lied on the basis of their exhaustive review of the aforementioned 30 terabytes of data. Anton was not charged in connection to the 2011 Vancouver riot.
Stupidity itself is not a crime. Bragging about one’s criminal exploits on social media doesn’t necessarily mean it actually happened that way. It does, however, get you a lot of attention as Anton can certainly attest, which many users on social media desperately crave.
What about the photos or videos of the people in the Capitol building? Anyone with Photoshop can pretty easily make it look like they were actually at the Capitol riot. As I sifted through thousands of social media posts during my research after the 2011 Vancouver riot, I happened upon materials believed to be Photoshopped. But it is ultimately up to investigators to make such determinations to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the evidence presented in the courtroom against the accused.
In this time of hurt and anger following the siege on the Capitol, we must remind ourselves to remain patient as due process takes its course to bring those responsible to justice.
