https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-the-capitol-riot-data-download-shows-about-social-media-vulnerabilities/

During the January 6 assault on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., rioters posted photographs and videos of their rampage on social media. The platforms they used ranged from mainstream sites such as Facebook to niche ones such as Parler—a social networking service popular with right-wing groups. Once they realized this documentation could get them in trouble, many started deleting their posts. But Internet sleuths had already begun downloading the potentially incriminating material. One researcher, who publicly identifies herself only by the Twitter handle @donk_enby, led an effort that she claims downloaded and archived more than 99 percent of all data posted to Parler before Amazon Web Services stopped hosting the platform. Scientific American repeatedly e-mailed Parler’s media team for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Amateur and federal investigators can extract a lot of information from this massive trove, including the locations and identities of Parler users. Although many of those studying the Parler data are law enforcement officials looking into the Capitol insurrection, the situation provides a vivid example of the way social media posts—whether extreme or innocuous—can inadvertently reveal much more information than intended. And vulnerabilities that are legitimately used by investigators can be just as easily exploited by bad actors.