Unicorn Riot is a

decentralized Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group. Conce ...

, nonprofit,

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in so ...

media collective that originated online in 2015. The group is known for reporting on

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of bein ...

organizations and sources of racial and economic injustice in the US. The non-hierarchical media organization operates in the US cities of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

as well as in South Africa. They produce

live streams Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...

of political rallies and protests and are funded by viewer donation and grants.

Structure

Unicorn Riot currently has around 10 members, based in Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and South Africa. The media collective is non-hierarchical and makes decisions based on consensus. The organization is frequently described as

. Unicorn Riot has maintained a channel on livestream.com since May 2015. Besides creating live video of protests, the media collective also engages in

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years res ...

, producing web series, video packages, blogs, and podcasts. They have published documents obtained through open records requests, including a copy of the

Denver Police Department The Denver Police Department (DPD) is the full service police department jointly for the City and County of Denver, Colorado, which provides police services to the entire county, including Denver International Airport, and may provide contractu ...

Crowd Management Manual. They also produce the weekly news show ''Deprogram''. Unicorn Riot releases its content under a

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has releas ...

license.

History

The founding members of Unicorn Riot met while filming

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to othe ...

s in support of

Tar Sands Blockade Tar Sands Blockade is a grassroots coalition of affected Texas and Oklahoma people and climate justice organizers who use peaceful and sustained civil disobedience to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Tar Sands Blockade used nonviolent dir ...

and

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to the ...

. Some had previously worked for online news outlets and had grown frustrated with news organizations that failed to publish their work. The founders of Unicorn Riot started meeting in Minneapolis in the fall of 2014. Among the founders were Lorenzo Serna, Andrew Neef, Niko Georgiades, Pat Boyle, and Ray Weiland. Unicorn Riot claims to seek to "amplify the voices of people from marginalized communities" and to broadcast and bring context to stories that are not picked up by the mainstream media. Early on, they documented the

Ferguson protests The Ferguson unrest (sometimes called the Ferguson uprising, Ferguson protests, or the Ferguson riots) were a series of protests and riots which began in Ferguson, Missouri on August 10, 2014, the day after the fatal shooting of Michael Bro ...

following the

shooting of Michael Brown On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Brown was accompanied by his 22-year-old male friend Dorian Johnson, who later stated that Brow ...

. During the next year, Unicorn Riot registered as an educational 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Unicorn Riot journalists are often embedded in protests, and film from the front lines. Members of the media collective have been repeatedly targeted for arrest by law enforcement officers and often have their cameras and equipment confiscated. Their press credentials have also been challenged by the police. In 2022, Unicorn Riot was classified as a member of the news media by Minnesota's Fourth District Court as part of Energy Transfer LP v. Greenpeace International.

Activities

Black Lives Matter protests

Unicorn Riot has documented a number of rallies and protests related to the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brut ...

movement. Following the November 2015 shooting of Jamar Clark in Minneapolis, Unicorn Riot maintained a live stream of the occupation of the

Minneapolis Police Department The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is the primary law enforcement agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is also the largest police department in Minnesota. Formed in 1867, it is the second-oldest police department in Minnesot ...

's 4th Precinct station. The media collective also documented the protests that took place following the

shooting of Philando Castile On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot during a traffic stop by police officer Jeronimo Yanez of the St. Anthony police department in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Castile was ...

, including blockages of interstate freeways.

Denver homeless encampments

In Denver, Colorado, Unicorn Riot live streamed the removal of homeless encampments, including an eviction that took place during a blizzard on the morning of December 15, 2015.

Dakota Access Pipeline protests

During the

protests A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...

against the

Dakota Access Pipeline The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) or Bakken pipeline is a underground Pipeline transport, pipeline in the United States that has the ability to transport up to 750,000 barrels of Sweet crude oil, light sweet crude oil per day. It begins in the ...

, Unicorn Riot was one of the first media groups to be present when Standing Rock Sioux tribe members set up the Sacred Stone Camp on April 1, 2016. The media collective has maintained a near continuous presence at the pipeline protests. Video from Unicorn Riot showing a crowd of protesters being sprayed with

water cannon A water cannon is a device that shoots a high-velocity stream of water. Typically, a water cannon can deliver a large volume of water, often over dozens of meters. They are used in firefighting, large vehicle washing, riot control, and mining. ...

s during sub-zero temperatures was used to contradict police reports that the cannons were only being used to put out fires. Four Unicorn Riot reporters were arrested in September and October 2016. Chris Schiano and Georgiades were arrested on September 13 as they were filming protesters who had locked themselves to equipment being used to construct the pipeline. Reporter Lorenzo Serna was arrested in both North Dakota and Iowa, and reporter Jenn Schreiter was arrested in October while reporting on a lockdown at a DAPL construction site in Iowa.

Unite the Right rally

Unicorn Riot had documented several of the chat rooms in the

Discord Discord is a VoIP and instant messaging social platform. Users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers".The developer documenta ...

application prior to the

Unite the Right rally The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, Neo-Nazism, neo- ...

in August 2017, which led to violence between alt right groups and local citizens, including the death of one person. The group subsequently released this material, which was used to identify the anonymous users on Discord who were involved with violence at the rally.

Documentary film

Unicorn Riot produced a feature-length documentary film about the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline entitled ''Black Snake Killaz: A #NoDAPL Story''. The film was premiered on November 17, 2017 at the Parkway theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and released online free of charge for educational purposes via Unicorn Riot's website on November 18, 2017.

Gab

In October 2018, Unicorn Riot discovered that on Gab, individual users on the platform led by

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

figure

Brittany Pettibone Martin Michael Sellner (born 8 January 1989) is a far-right Austrian Neue Rechte, and leader of the Identitäre Bewegung Österreichs (IBÖ, Identitarian Movement of Austria). In March 2018, he was denied entry to, and deported from, the United ...

organized on the video game chat and voice room platform

and that some of the discussions centered on

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and achieving "

ethno-nationalism Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnocratic) approach to various politic ...

Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement (IE/AIM)

In March 2019, Unicorn Riot leaked more than 770,000

messages from

Identity Evropa Identity Evropa () was an American neo-Nazi and white supremacist organization established in March 2016. It was rebranded as the American Identity Movement in March 2019. In November 2020, the group disbanded. Leaders and members of Identity Ev ...

's (IE) national server called "Nice Respectable People Group" as well as that of Nicholas J. Fuentes' America First, James Allsup's The Nationalist Review, and the group's

Slack Slack may refer to: Places * Slack, West Yorkshire, a village in Calderdale, England * The Slack, a village in County Durham, England * Slack (river), a river in Pas-de-Calais department, France * Slacks Creek, Queensland, a suburb of Logan City, ...

server. The leaks revealed that Identity Evropa was attempting an campaign into the Republican Party such as one member meeting with Billy Ciancaglini (party candidate for the

Mayor of Philadelphia The mayor of Philadelphia is the chief executive of the government of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of Philadelphia. The current mayor of Philadelphia is Jim Kenney. History The first mayor of Philadelphia, ...

), sympathizing with Representative

Steve King Steven Arnold King (born May 28, 1949) is an American far-right politician and businessman who served as a U.S. representative from Iowa from 2003 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Iowa's 5th congressional district un ...

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

and others seeking to join College Republican clubs. Several members were

doxed Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this in ...

, and the group was rebranded American Identity Movement (AIM), as part of a public relations effort to avoid scrutiny.

Shutdown of brown coal infrastructure in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Unicorn Riot livestreamed the "

Ende Gelände (EG) (German saying for "here and no further"; literally "end terrain" or "end of terrain") is a civil disobedience movement occupying coal mines in Germany to raise awareness for climate justice. Ende Gelände has been organizing mass civil dis ...

protests in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

, whose aim is to shut down brown coal fossil fuel infrastructure in North Rhine-Westphalia. Ende Gelände (roughly translated to "Here no further") achieved this by entering the brown coal pit mine and blocking the brown coal transport railroad track.

Murder of George Floyd

After the May 2020

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

, Unicorn Riot began doing a series of live streams on Twitter and YouTube of the protest and uprising in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...

and

Saint Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

. Unicorn Riot has had a history of working in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...

and covering police brutality and other violence.

Patriot Front

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' reported on 28 January 2022 that more than 400 gigabytes of private

Patriot Front Patriot Front is an American white nationalist and neo-fascist hate group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. P ...

chat logs on RocketChat had been obtained and published by Unicorn Riot. The logs reveal efforts to expand membership, with the founder Thomas Rousseau writing "We are absolutely desperate for new people. We've been in the 220's to 230's membership rut for nearly a full year". The group can be seen attempting to inflate its numbers and importance, outlining plans to create fake social media accounts pretending to be bystanders to marches, and posting deceptive material on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news news aggregator, aggregation, Review site#Rating site, content rating, and Internet forum, discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") subm ...

and

4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...

, as well as direct messaging traditional media outlets and rejoicing when it is mentioned in the news. The leaders frequently scold members for not participating in events.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Unicorn Riot Alternative journalism organizations American news websites Citizen journalism DIY culture News agencies based in the United States Organizations established in 2014 Left-wing organizations in the United States