Did an Industry Front Group Create Fake Twitter Accounts to Promote the Dakota Access Pipeline?

picture-7018-1583982147.png
on

A DeSmog investigation has revealed the possibility thatย a front group supporting the controversial Dakota Access Pipelineย (DAPL) โ€” theย Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now (MAIN) โ€” may have created fake Twitter profiles, known by some as โ€œsock puppets,โ€ to convey a pro-pipeline message over social media. And MAIN may be employingย the PR services of the firm DCI Group, which has connections to theย Republican Party, in orderย to doย so.ย 

DeSmog tracked downย at least 16 differentย questionableย Twitter accountsย whichย used the #NoDAPL hashtag employed by protesters, in orderย toย claimย that opposition to the pipeline kills jobs, that those protesting the pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s encampmentย use violence, and that the pipeline does not pose a risk to water sourcesย or cross over tribalย land.

On September 13, people began to suspect these accounts were fake, calling them out on Twitter, and by September 14, most of the accounts no longerย existed.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is set to carry oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€) from the Bakken Shale basin in North Dakotaย across the Dakotas, Iowa, andย Illinois. Itsย owner, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), says it plans toย talk to the Obama administration and โ€œreiterate [its] commitment to bring the Dakota Access Pipeline into operation.โ€ It will do so despite the administration requesting that the companyย halt construction โ€œvoluntarilyย โ€” particularly around the contested sacred tribal sitesย located 20 miles east and west of Lake Oahe and the Missouri Riverย โ€” until furtherย notice.โ€

In his memorandum announcing his company’s plans to do so,ย ETP CEO Kelcy Warren espoused many of the same arguments that were deployed by the Twitter sock puppets, which callsย into question whether his company helped spearhead theย social media campaign behind the scenes in order to create the appearance of grassroots support, a technique known asย โ€œastroturfing.โ€

In that memo, Warrenย said his company plans to engage more aggressively in the PRย sphere.

โ€œIt has not been my preference to engage in a media/PR battle,โ€ wrote Warren. โ€œHowever, misinformation has dominated the news, so we will work to communicate with the government and media more clearly in the days toย come.โ€

Vicki Granado, a spokesperson for the company, did not respond to a request forย comment.ย 

In the meantime, as all stakeholders in the debate await a definitive next move from the Obama administration, protests both on-site and nationwide have continued, with a militarized police presence at the Sacred Stone Camp intensifying. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke at a September 13 Washington, DC protest against the pipeline, while U.S. Representativesย Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) andย Raul Ruiz (D-CA) that same dayย called for a congressional oversight investigationย ofย the hotlyย contestedย permitting issues which have arisen in the ongoing saga over the pipeline’sย future.ย 

With that backdrop, in came the โ€œsock puppetsโ€ for their ownย September 13 day of action on Twitterย โ€” and with MAIN likelyย pulling theย strings.ย 

The Sockย Puppets

The sock puppet profiles had names such as Ashley Lovinggood,ย Garnett Vreeken, Yong Fetner, andย Ying Baars, and all of the profile pictures featured women. Besides tweets promoting theย Dakota Access Pipeline, what links all of the bogus profiles together is that they all โ€œfollowโ€ (similar to โ€œlikingโ€ a page on Facebook) the companyย Hootsuite.

Image Credit: Twitter

Hootsuite serves as a social media platform management toolย which allows an administrator for many different social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter, to toggle quickly between accounts and send out posts in the form ofย tweets and otherย status updates. One of those accounts, that ofย Angla Dullea, formerly followed MAIN โ€” and like all of the other pagesย โ€” also followed Hootsuite; that is,ย until the accountย becameย suspended.

Dullea’s profile photo bore anย identicalย resemblance to theย Twitter profile forย Palma Mackerl,ย another bare-bones Twitterย account.

ย 

Image Credit: Twitter

Dullea also retweeted a tweet from a group called Standing Rock Fact Checker, which on its website describes itself as a project of MAIN. The website also states it isย โ€œdedicated to promoting the truthโ€ and battling โ€œmisinformation about the approved โ€” and nearly complete โ€” Dakota Access project.โ€ย Five other suspicious Twitter profiles also sharedย Fact Checkerย tweets.

MAIN members include the South Dakota Petroleum and Propane Marketers Association,ย North Dakota Petroleum Council,ย Petroleum Marketers,ย Convenience Stores of Iowa, andย others.

Reverse photo searches on Google revealed that theย pictures used for other sock puppet profiles also appeared on a dermatologist website, a mail order bride website, and aย hairstyle website featuring a photo of Eva Longoria,ย as well as images of Chinese modelย Crystal Wang Xi Ran,ย singer Keri Hilson,ย and the late singer Amyย Winehouse.

Eva Longoria doppelgรคnger; Photo Credit: Twitter | Oliverย Keyes

The use of political botsย and sock puppets is nothing new and in fact, has become normalized by political factions worldwide, explained Norah Abokhodair of the Political Bots research program based at the University of Washington and Oxfordย University.ย 

โ€œThere are many ways in which social bots can disrupt or influence online discourse, such as, spamming, phishing, distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), or other nefarious activities,โ€ Abokhodair explained, pointing to examples such as the Syrian Civil War botsย and bots used in Turkey. โ€œThey can also be deployed for sophisticated activities like astroturfing, misdirection (botnet that tries to get the audience to attend to other content by spamming the hashtag) and smoke screening (serves to hide or provide cover for or obscure some type ofย activity).โ€

MAIN and DCIย Group

MAIN was the only industry group to issue a press release in response toย the Obama administration’s September 9ย announcement halting construction on a portion of theย Dakota Access Pipeline. Its press releaseย contained a statement attributed to spokesperson Craig Stevens. Stevens also recently did an interview withย KVLYTV, the NBC and CBS affiliate for Fargo, North Dakota.ย When on TV, however, he was billed as the โ€œspokesperson for a pipeline sort of group, if you willโ€ by segment host Chris Berg.

Despite the lack of disclosure by KVLY and Berg, it turns out that Craig Stevens actually works asย Media Affairs and Crisis Management Lead for DCI Group. His DCI Group contact information is listed for MAIN‘s profile page on the website PRย Newswire.

Image Credit:ย PRย Newswire

DCI is a PR firm tied to the GOP andย with roots in creating front groups on behalf of Big Tobacco, spearheading the modern Tea Party movement, and representing oppressive dictatorial regimes such as that of Burma and oil- and gas-soaked Azerbaijan. Stevens formerly worked for the George W. Bush presidential campaign, served as spokespersonย for U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman for the George W. Bush Administration, and also worked on Mitt Romney’s 2012 Republican Party presidentialย campaign.

Jim Murphy, the political director forย Donald Trump’s Republican Party presidential campaign, formerly served as President and Managing Partner for DCI Group.ย Beyond the DCI Group connection, Continental Resourcesย โ€” whose founder and CEO Harold Hamm is one of Donald Trump’s top energy advisers and a potential candidate for U.S. Secretary of Energy under a Trump presidencyย โ€” said in a recent investor statement that a significant chunk of the company’s Bakken oil will flow through Dakota Access.ย 

Before DCI Group began working on Standing Rock-related projects for MAIN, it appears the PR firm LS2Group maintained the PR account for Dakota Access. A MAIN press release from November 2015 lists LS2‘s Kayla Day as the contact person and her LS2 work number is also listed, while metadata for the press release’s PDF shows the document was last saved by former LS2 stafferย Alex Shaner.

DCI‘sย Role

As DeSmog has previously revealed, LS2ย also did PR work in support of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. The group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvementย published emailsย from 2014 (obtained via a public records request) showing LS2 alsoย doing advocacy work in support of Dakotaย Access.

LS2‘s Day told DeSmog that LS2 still does some work on behalf of MAIN, but declined to comment further on how the work is divvied up between LS2 and DCI Group. Stevens was first listed as a spokesperson for MAIN in a September 6 press release, two days after the now-infamous dog biting incident took place at the protesting Standing Rock Siuox Tribe’s Sacred Stone Camp. The Standing Rock Fact Checker website was registered the day before, andย it also sent out its first tweet that sameย day.

Standing Rock Fact Checker

Image Credit:ย WhoIs.net

Stevens declined to comment on who funds MAIN, referring to the membership list and confirming he was brought onย in the past couple weeks to do PR work on behalf of the coalition, โ€œas the whole public discussion has increased and been elevatedโ€ surroundingย the pipeline. He also confirmed he runs the Fact Checkerย portal.

Asked about whether his firm or MAIN had anything to do with the sock-puppet tweets, Stevens denied he or MAIN had anyย involvement.ย 

โ€œIt’s frustrating to me because we’re working to be respectful in tone and fact-based and any tactics like these are a distraction for what we’re trying to do and that’s to bring facts and contexts to this discussion,โ€ Stevens said. โ€œI don’t know about the tactics themselves and I don’t know who or what is behind it, but as someone who’s trying to get facts out and trying to be respectful in tone, it was incredibly frustrating that this was going on. As far as I know, and think I know, the MAIN Coalition had nothing to do withย them.โ€

However, noted environmental advocate and co-founder of climate group 350.org, Bill McKibben, doubts the authenticity of such claims from PR firms with a record like DCI,ย saying:ย 

โ€œThere’s a word for this kind of thing, and that word is: lying. The invention of fake people to make fake arguments perfectly exemplifies the tactics Big Oil has been reduced to. They can’t win an argument on the merits, so they’ve given up trying. Instead, they literally make things up. The contrast with the steadfast straightforwardness of the tribes, and of the climate scientists, couldn’t be moreย stark.โ€

Main Image:ย Twitter

picture-7018-1583982147.png
Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

Related Posts

on

High demand for wild-caught species to feed farmed salmon and other fish is taking nutritious food away from low-income communities in the Global South.

High demand for wild-caught species to feed farmed salmon and other fish is taking nutritious food away from low-income communities in the Global South.
Analysis
on

Premier Danielle Smith can expect new tariffs, fewer revenue streams, and a provincial deficit brought on by lowered oil prices.

Premier Danielle Smith can expect new tariffs, fewer revenue streams, and a provincial deficit brought on by lowered oil prices.
on

Jeremy Clarkson spreads well-worn conspiracy theory that casts inheritance farm tax policy as plot to โ€œreplace farmers with migrantsโ€.

Jeremy Clarkson spreads well-worn conspiracy theory that casts inheritance farm tax policy as plot to โ€œreplace farmers with migrantsโ€.
on

Premier Danielle Smith declared sheโ€™s pursuing โ€˜every legal optionโ€™ in her fight against Trudeauโ€™s federal proposal to curb emissions.

Premier Danielle Smith declared sheโ€™s pursuing โ€˜every legal optionโ€™ in her fight against Trudeauโ€™s federal proposal to curb emissions.