Silicon Valley is tightening its ties with Trumpworld, the surveillance state is rapidly expanding, and big tech’s AI data center buildout is booming. Civilians are pushing back.
In today’s edition of Blood in the Machine:
Across the nation, people are dismantling and destroying Flock cameras that conduct warrantless vehicle surveillance, and whose data is shared with ICE.
An Oklahoma man airing his concerns about a local data center project at a public hearing is arrested after he exceeded his allotted time by a couple seconds.
Uber and Lyft drivers deliver a petition signed by 10,000 gig workers demanding that stolen wages be returned to them.
PLUS: A climate researcher has a new report that unravels the ‘AI will solve climate change’ mythos, Tesla’s Robotaxis are crashing 4 times as often as humans, and AI-generated public comments helped kill a vote on air quality.
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Last week, in La Mesa, a small city just east of San Diego, California, observers happened upon a pair of destroyed Flock cameras. One had been smashed and left on the median, the other had key parts removed. The destruction was obviously intentional, and appears perhaps even staged to leave a message: It came just weeks after the city decided, in the face of public protest, to continue its contracts with the surveillance company.
Flock cameras are typically mounted on 8 to 12 foot poles and powered by a solar panel. The smashed remains of all of the above in La Mesa are the latest examples of a widening anti-Flock backlash. In recent months, people have been smashing and dismantling the surveillance devices, in incidents reported in at least five states, from coast to coast.
Photos by Bill Paul of SD Slackers , used with permission.
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