Anti-Dakota Access Activists Perpetuating Falsities on Social Media – Including False Quote from ETP CEO

As the emotional Dakota Access protesters express their opposition on social media, inaccuracies, myths, falsities, and outright lies have spread. Recently over social media, opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline have targeted Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren.

In addition to threatening Warren and even posting his address online, users have been circulating a quote from Warren that is unequivocally false.

According to the post, Warren said the following:

“America’s freedom won’t be held back by a bunch of dirty natives with their phoney [sic] spirituality and dumb ass ecological concerns.”

This quote is completely baseless.

The original post was widely shared despite commenters asking for sourcing and receiving none, as made clear by Snopes. Moreover, the lengthy review and consultation process to approve the Dakota Access pipeline shows an inherent respect for Native groups.

This is not the first example of inaccurate, viral social media posts. In September, protestors claimed a young girl was attacked by a dog during a protest. In reality, the incident occurred four years prior in Texas and had nothing to do with a pipeline or any other infrastructure project.

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A few weeks later, protestors circulated a post featuring a massive crowd supposedly at the Sacred Stone Camp. It was proven shortly after that the picture was from Woodstock… in 1969.

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