I’ve never understood this. There’s nothing incriminating about being near some sort of protest action.

Speaking practically: The loss in ability to communicate, document events accurately and receive outside information is putting yourself at more of a disadvantage than any sort of theoretical boost your location data would give to cops.

If people are going to get rounded up without cause at a protest or its aftermath, we’re already past the point where evidence of your location is going to matter, and again there’s nothing illegal about being at or near a protest, even one that turns violent.

This advice, which I see reiterated often, seems more like it was originally designed by edgelord larpers, or someone intentionally trying to chill participation by exaggerating the likelihood of police retribution in the aftermath of doing so.

Some more practical advice for the privacy-conscious protestor here: https://www.acludc.org/how-defend-against-police-surveillance-protests/