When residents of Madison County, North Carolina, sought to speak about the county’s AI surveillance cameras at a recent Madison County Commissioners meeting, commissioner Michael Garrison’s response was simple: “You will not speak on Flock tonight.” A clip capturing Garrison’s move to prevent public comment soon went viral, resonating with others waging similar battles in their communities.
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Executive Summary A New, More Permissive Context for Authoritarian Influence at Scale / Kevin Sheives (NED) China’s Authoritarian Influence: Ambition and Scale Meet Open Doors and New Opportunities / Caroline Costello (Atlantic Council) & William Nee (NED) Losing Allies, but Doubling Down: Russian Authoritarian Influence after the Invasion of Ukraine / Alexander Cooley (Barnard College…
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Civil rights attorneys say a recent Supreme Court ruling in a landmark digital privacy case could put “wind in the sails” of local organizers challenging police deployment of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). However, those organizers in cities large and small still face both a powerful industry and police departments determined to outfit their forces with the latest tech. It will take more…
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In March, The Lever reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had hired the infamous software company Palantir to implement its controversial return-to-office directive, warning that the contract could bring surveillance technology — commonly referred to as “Bossware” — to the federal workforce. Days later, those suspicions were confirmed. A published disclosure reveals that the…
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Resistance is mounting across the United States against the increasing use of surveillance tech company Flock Safety’s cameras, with a growing number of cities canceling contracts as the artificial intelligence-powered license plate readers are quietly being installed in thousands of locations nationwide. State and local police departments first used the Atlanta-based company’s automated…
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The FBI says that anti-capitalist graffiti can indicate a mobilization to violence and can be reported to the bureau, according to a counterterrorism report obtained by Prism through a public records request. The public safety awareness report, dated Jan. 30, states that “anarchist violent extremists,” dubbed AVEs by the FBI, “pose [a] persistent public safety threat.
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