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Capture the Flag (continues)

DragonKingDragonKing Member Posts: 1,977
OK, this has been putting a smile on my face and a laugh in my heart for a while now. For those who don't know I'll start from the beginning.

On January 20th, 2017, LaBeouf launched the livestream during the inauguration of Donald Trump. According to Indiewire, hundreds of people showed up to the livestream location the first day, including actor Jaden Smith.

"Open to all, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the participatory performance will be live-streamed continuously for four years, or the duration of the presidency. In this way, the mantra "HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US" acts as a show of resistance or insistence, opposition or optimism, guided by the spirit of each individual participant and the community."

On that same day, pictures LaBeouf and Jaden Smith was tweeted on twitter daisyrdle which gained a large amount of likes and retweets.

No long afterward youtuber I'm a fish started to highlight of the stream where trolls were drinking milk, holding pepe signs (rip), writing kek on the wall, and praising Donald trump.

On January 22nd, Infowars post footage of Labeouf freaking out screaming "he will not divide us" in the face of a trump supporter. After the news pick it up, the young man gets labelled a "white supremacist"

fJanuary 25th, 2017, Labeouf was arrested on stream on suspicion of assault (shown below). According to a New York Police Department spokesman, Labeouf allegedly grabbed a man's scarf and scratched his face, then pushed him to the ground after saying something that offended Labeouf on the livestream.

On January 26th, the HWNDUS Twitter feed claimed that Labeouf was arrested because of a video in which a man says "Hitler did nothing wrong" (shown below). Shortly after, the feed posted another tweet claiming "Shia was attacked by a Nazi" along with the hashtag #FreeShia . That day, the hashtag became a trending topic within the United States, often accompanied by both protests and mockeries of the arrest.






On February 10th, 2017, Page Six reported that the Museum of the Moving Image would be shutting down the He Will Not Divide Us installation, citing violent altercations that had occurred on-site.

"“The installation created a serious and ongoing public safety hazard for the museum, its visitors, its staff, local residents and businesses. The installation had become a flashpoint for violence and was disrupted from its original intent. While the installation began constructively, it deteriorated markedly after one of the artists was arrested at the site of the installation and ultimately necessitated this action."

That day, the He Will Not Divide Us livestream was changed to display the message "The Museum Has Abandoned Us"

On February 19th, Redditor stillnihilist posted a GIF of a man brandishing a firearm on the stream, claiming that he displayed the weapon while saying "Fuck Trump and his supporters"Within 48 hours, the GIF received more than 3,200 votes (97% upvoted) and 260 comments on the /r/The_Donald subreddit.

On February 21st, the camera was spray-painted by a masked vandal.

On February 23rd, 2017, the livestream was closed after gunshots were reported in the local area.

On March 8th, the web cam was moved to an unknown location, where it pointed up at a flag with the words "He Will Not Divide Us" printed on the side

On March 9th, an unknown person was recorded taking down the flag and replacing it with a "Make America Great Again" hat and Pepe the Frog T-shirt


The following day, Redditor Merios_96 posted a /pol/-themed Picardia image macro speculating that a 4chan user tracked flight patterns and mapped stars in order to figure out where the flag's location was to /r/The_Donald, where it gained over 10,500 votes (92% upvoted) and 875 comments in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). The following day, Redditor redleftred uploaded an illustration of several Pepe the Frog's running from Wojack with the "He Will Not Divide Us" flag

on March 10th, the news site Get Riced posted an article about how the location was discovered, claiming that viewers used triangulation techniques based on planes seen in the stream to determine the general area. A local then began honking their horn repeatedly while driving in the area, which were picked up by the webcam's microphone to further narrow the location. Finally, using star maps, 4chan users were able to identify the exact location of the flag on Google Maps.

On March 22nd, 2017, the livestream was relocated to the top of the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool, England. In a press release, Labeouf, Turner and Rönko claimed that "America is simply not safe enough for this artwork to exist" and accused those who stole the flag previously as being "white supremacists." That day, an anonymous 4chan user submitted several photographs of the new location to the /pol/ (politics) board. In threads on both 4chan and 8chan, users planned ways to remove the flag from the building with drones, including cutting it down with an attached knife or painting it green with an attached paint bomb.

On March 23rd, as masked man appeared on the Liverpool stream. The stream was subsequently taken offline and photographs began appearing on both 4chan and 8chan of an empty flag pole on the building, with many speculating that it had been stolen by the masked man.


Shortly after, a photograph of the masked man standing on a roof with a cohort was posted to /pol/, referring to the pair as ''parkour autists'' That day, the official FACT_Liverpool Twitter feed announced that "on police advice" the installation was removed "due to dangerous, illegal trespassing".

On March 23rd, the digital strategy company Studio Nobu created a "digital replica" of the art installation on the site HeWillNotDivideUs.xyz,] featuring a virtual "He Will Not Divide Us" flag placed in the middle of a desert (shown below). That day, the site went down for several hours, leading many to speculate it was hit by a DDOS attack from 4chan users.

That day, YouTuber H Drone uploaded a video titled "HWNDU Flag: London," chronicling how the flag was purportedly discovered at a different location in England by shining a blue light through a window and tracking reflections based on the movement of the sun throughout the day. The video has since been removed. Meanwhile, an image began circulating claiming that a blue light directed through the window of the house was visible on the wall during the livestream.

In October 2017, the flag was moved to the Le Lieu Unique contemporary arts and music venue in Nantes, France.

On October 16th, 2017, YouTuber MundaneMatt uploaded a video about the new location, referring to it as "Season 7" of the art project.

On October 24th, 2017, the H Drone YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "Drone Attack on HWNDU Flag: France," showing a remote-controlled quadcopter with a flaming piece of cloth dangling from the bottom attempting to light the flag on fire before crashing to the ground. The following day, the video was submitted to /r/The_Donald, where it received more than 640 points (98% upvoted) and 100 comments within 24 hours. That day, Yahoo News published an article about the attack, which included a statement from the Le Lieu Unique gallery:

"An unauthorised drone carrying a burning piece of cloth approached the flag to try to set it alight. The fireproof flag was undamaged and the attempt failed."

On May 8th, 2018, Shia LaBeouf tweeted an embed of the relaunched livestream, showing the flags waving in the sky (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 4,500 likes, 1,100 retweets and 540 replies. That day, several posts about the stream were submitted to 4chan's /pol/ board.

On May 9th, Redditor InfinitySlayer8 posted a screenshot of a 4chan post about the stream titled "He Will Not Divide Us: Infinity War" to /r/4chan,[29] where it gathered upwards of 3,800 points (95% upvoted) and 140 comments within eight hours.

And now, we wait!

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