Federal agents used a YouTube livestream to charge a Portland protester with arson

• Court records show that on at least one occasion, Federal Protect Service agents used a YouTube livestream to identify and charge protester Kevin Weier with attempted arson of a federal building, Recode reported on Tuesday.
• The only hard evidence cited in court documents was YouTube footage. Weier said he was there at the time, but denied touching the flaming board.
• President Donald Trump deployed federal agents to Portland, saying it was to protect federal buildings from protesters there, but demonstrators have reported being rounded up into unmarked vehicles and detained without explanation.

US federal agents used a YouTube livestream to arrest a protester in Portland, who now faces up to 20 years in prison if he's convicted.

Court records show that Federal Protect Service (FPS) agents used citizen journalists' livestreams as evidence to identify and arrest a protester named Kevin Weier, Recode reported on Tuesday.

Weier was arrested on July 13, and has been charged with attempted arson of a federal building. The only hard evidence cited in court documents was the YouTube footage. Weier said he was there at the time, but denied touching the flaming board.

People in Portland have been protesting against police brutality and systemic racism for more than 50 days, since the death of George Floyd, and the federal courthouse has been a regular target.

President Donald Trump deployed federal agents to Portland, saying it was to protect federal buildings from protesters there, but demonstrators have reported being rounded up into unmarked vehicles and detained without explanation. Videos and photos have also showed federal agents tear-gassing and firing impact munitions at peaceful demonstrators.

An FPS agent's affidavit said agents identified Weier by watching a YouTube channel that hosts livestreams from the Portland protests, alleging that Weier leaned a flaming wooden board against the courthouse. The footage showed a different protester had put the board there, and a third removed it, according to Recode.

A Department of Homeland Security analyst "analyzed" the livestream, took screenshots of Weier's face, and sent them to agents on the ground in Portland, who kept him under surveillance for several hours before arresting him, Recode reported.

Anteros Oberon, who runs the YouTube channel, told Recode that concerns about putting protesters at risk by using live feeds, or showing protester's faces in social media posts, were valid.

But he added: "In my own view, to be quite honest, I fear the moments when we are offline, when streamers are not showing what is happening."

He also said that although there was no legal authority to stop the authorities from watching the feeds, his channel "denounce[d] the practice" and called on agents to "adjust their standards and practices" so journalists and citizens would not be put in danger.

In a similar case, federal agents used screenshots of a Twitter video to charge a 23-year-old man with assaulting a federal officer, according to the Washington Times. Prosecutors allege the man was hitting the boarded-up courthouse with a hammer and struck officers when they tried to stop him, The Oregonian reported.

Oregon officials have decried Trump's move to deploy federal agents to Portland, accusing the administration of infringing on citizens' constitutional rights and going against the city's wishes. Trump has threatened to send forces to other cities, but mayors in at least Chicago, Detroit, and New York have slammed the threat and told him not to.