From “The Free Thought Project”
The Counter Terrorism Apparatus Comes For Anti-Surveillance Activists
Government spy hubs across America are surveilling activists seeking to remove Flock surveillance cameras from their cities and towns according to documents obtained by Deeper States. These intelligence products show dozens of state fusion centers and their counterparts in the FBI and DHS circulating memos warning that peaceful protesters organizing to stop AI powered surveillance cameras in their backyard are a national security threat.
Alongside the grassroots movement to stop data centers in communities across the country, Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader systems have stirred similar outpourings of civic outrage. At town halls and city council meetings, citizens from all walks of life have demanded local legislators ban flock cameras from being used in their localities. These efforts have found success with over 100 cities canceling their Flock contracts.
Anti-surveillance sentiment has coalesced with the activist organization DeFlock, which maps the tens of thousands of flock cameras pockmarking the country and offers resources to activists who oppose the widespread adaptation of automated license plate readers.
According to Deflock’s mission statement, “ALPRs [automated license plate readers] are a serious risk to your privacy and civil liberties. These systems continuously record your movements without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion. Your driving history is rarely confined to the town or city where the cameras are installed. It’s typically shared with thousands of other agencies nationwide (secretly). Once the data is out of your community, you have no control over how it’s used or what rules apply”.
The organization also points to intentional misuse of Flock systems for stalking and the potential for misidentification of suspects leading to false arrests as further cause for concern. Last year, flock CEO Garett Langley described Deflock activists as a “terroristic organization”, a description he was forced to walk back this week after widespread outrage at the resurfaced comments.
“My comments were a mistake and I apologize,” Langley told Forbes. “There are groups today that have real valid criticisms of the business, and I think what’s changed for us is, as we’ve listened to them and heard them out, what we’re trying to do is find this balance. We believe in a world where we can have safety and privacy.”
Despite Langley’s retreat, intelligence agencies are approaching Deflock’s constitutionally protected speech and organizing with the same tools and language they apply to terrorism. One report obtained by Deeper States and generated by the Wisconsin State Wide Intelligence Center shows intelligence components surveilling organizers of Deflock “days of action” in Alaska and Wisconsin.
The report instructs law enforcement to Increase patrols around ALPR during the known upcoming DeFlock events, monitor connectivity to ALPRs, review past cases involving damage to any ALPR “or similar modus operandi” and to advise patrol officers to report unusual inquiries about ALPRs and all vandalism, disruption, or sabotage to “your respective fusion center.”
In other words, the directive seeks to increase police surveillance of anti-police surveillance activists exercising their constitutional rights. Another intelligence product from the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange seems to acknowledge the dangerous conflation of peaceful advocacy with calls for property destruction before continuing to combine the two unheeded. “Recent social movements have adopted similar sentiments, promoting privacy-rights and anti surveillance attitudes” the report reads.
“Some advocates in these movements have led successful peaceful and non-criminal protests about implementation of these devices in several cities; however, others openly support their destruction through various measures. The increased engagement by these groups has encouraged public involvement in acts of vandalism and destruction of these systems with additional discussion on the tactics and procedures to do so.”
Translation: Deflock’s peaceful advocacy, while not criminal by its own right, has created the environment for violence to flourish, and is therefore a threat. The same Florida fusion center also warned about dangerously patriotic language surrounding an anti-flock day of action, with activists writing online that “The Fourth will be a day of independence not just for our country but from surveillance.” If advocating for a constitutional right to privacy is terrorism, a lot of people are about to be locked up.
And that’s exactly what the current administration would like to see happen. As I previously reported for Wired, the targeting of Anti-flock activists comes at the same time that the FBI, DHS, and State Department are working on a novel dragnet to grow the ever expanding definition of terrorism.
A new threat category for “anti-technology extremism” has begun circulating across law enforcement agencies, and last week Secretary of State Marco Rubio held an international summit where he threw around anti-technology terrorism as a category of people he intends to monitor and persecute with the help of European allies.
“The United States has observed a concerning convergence between violent far-left and anarchist networks and other violent extremist actors, including violent pro-Iranian and antisemitic networks, as well as militant anti-tech and eco-terrorist movements.” Rubio wrote in talking points obtained by Ken Klippenstein. “This is a trend we are monitoring closely and engaging partners to address,” he added.
I can’t think of any advocacy movement in my lifetime that has been as widespread and effective as those opposing flock and data center construction, and thats what makes the feds nervous.
What we risk losing under this new crackdown is our American right to free expression and protest, undeterred by thought crime threat categories like “anti-tech extremism”. Whether you want to turn our country into a Matrix-like simulation replete with pink fluid filled sacks that suck the energy out of your body like a toothless dachshund eating an oyster, or, whether you believe that we should steer away from a world run by parasitic machines, everyone has the right to voice an opinion and organize for the future they think is best.
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