The changing face of protest
Mass protests used to offer a degree of safety in numbers.
#FacialRecognition #technology changes the equation.
"But while authorities generally pitch facial recognition as a tool to capture terrorists or wanted murderers, the technology has also emerged as a critical instrument in a very particular context: punishing protesters.
(...)
In countries where demonstrating can come with physical or political risk, large-scale protests have historically offered a degree of anonymity, and, with it, a level of protection. Mass protests are a way for citizens to express dissent as a collective — often under the assumption that “they can’t arrest us all.”
But in the last decade, the spread of facial recognition technology has changed that equation: A lone face in a crowd is no longer anonymous; facial recognition allows
#authorities to capture people’s identities en masse."
https://restofworld.org/2024/facial-recognition-government-protest-surveillance/#/an-end-to-privacy#surveillance #Protest #Repression
