If you’re on a demo in London, watch out for the “Ruptly” (a part of Russia Today) camera crews. They have taken to following the Black Bloc or other lively demonstrators around, and livestreaming everything they see. This can be dangerous shit: for example, on one demo a little while back Ruptly filmed people taking off masks, showing people’s faces.
Yesterday (Saturday 20th June) some in the breakaway bloc from the March Against Austerity confronted some men with video cameras who were following and filming the bloc. This seems to have had an effect, as Ruptly tweeted that they were “forced to stop filming after threats from the #BlackBloc“.
On London demos it’s become common practice for people to confront and block the police FIT team from filming. (NB: a court case a few years ago found it was entirely legal to block police cameras, e.g., by holding up a banner in front of them.) We should extend the same treatment to Ruptly. After all:
1) Just like the Met, they are hired lackeys of a tyrannous regime: RT is a propaganda agency of Putin’s Russia.
2) Just like the Met, their footage is evidence that can be used to incriminate people.