Aus - Pot arrests made easy as #stoners 'turn selves in' online

[poledriver]

Australian police are finding it easier to crack down on illegal marijuana possession

By PoliceOne Staff

Australian police are finding it easier to crack down on illegal marijuana possession as users are not only posting their drug photos online, but flagging them with hashtags for quick retrieval.

On the photo-sharing site Instagram, searching and clicking on #aussiestoners, #weedstagram and #oznugs brings up dozens of images of grow operations, marijuana plants and smokers with bongs, CBC News reported.

A screenshot from Twitter shows a photo of marijuana tagged with incriminating keywords.

A spokesman for Victoria police said anyone tracked and prosecuted online would face penalties if caught.

http://www.policeone.com/social-med...s-made-easy-as-stoners-turn-selves-in-online/

 

[cj]

fuck da police.

 

[poledriver]

#fuckdapolice

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

The question now is, will this thread pop up the next time they Google the #stoners tag? :D

 

[poledriver]

haha probably, give it a day or two.

 

[sekio]

About to smoke some #weed #cannabis #cindica #headies #plzdontarrest #yolo

 

[slimvictor]

Would the "incriminating" keywords really prove anything in court?
Couldn't you just say "it was this guy I met's weed"?
(Don't be dissin' my grammar, because I love relative clauses like that!)

 

[opi8]

If they've posted to a social media account with their IP address, that's pretty damning evidence. Especially if the'y said "look at my sweet grow. Weighed up as 400 pounds!!". That's pretty solid evidence.

Should have added, most people don't scrub the metadata from their images posted online, so it's very easy to track the phone/camera/device that took the photos to the person defending the claims. Add them all up and it sounds like reasonable evidence to me.

A lot of people really don't understand that the internet is not anonymous, even with things like tor, vpns, proxies, public wifis, whatever. There's plenty of other ways you can be found, and the police aren't getting any dumber.

 

[trip.more]

What a bunch of fucking idiots, posting grow room images? Pictures taken with modern phones contain meta data that states the phones location where the picture was taken as well as other information. Not smart at all. Literally telling the cops where to arrest them and where they can find a grow op.

 

[poledriver]

^ You can erase the metadata by posting the pic to another blank page and then UL'ing that, but alot of people probably don't realise this.