I don’t think it’s going to matter if local communities just switch brand names.

There seems to be something in the American DNA that is outright hostile to this kind of surveillance, and it’s bipartisan and crosses class lines. This is one of the few examples where protests and vigilantism have translated into widespread legal resistance to mass surveillance. One has to consider that Flock hasn’t just lost 300+ contracts in three months, but it’s happened in 36 US states.

That is undeniably a very big deal.

In case you feel hopeless today, figured this article would be a good reminder that at least locally you still have meaningful power to make change.

I’m going to guess that they’re partisan ideologues of the red and blue variety. They both are just so very fond of their thought-terminating cliches’, so it makes sense.

Normally, I’d agree with you. I was the only person I knew in my whole community that was anti-war in 2001.

But Flock losing 100+ contracts, just in September, and 400+ in 36 states since June suggests that awareness of the problem is translating to mass action via the boring, pedestrian democratic process. (Also a great reminder that while we have no power nationally, we still have power locally.)

Agreed that people are generally sheep. It’s why people still vote D and R, but at least right now, they’re doing something. The overall problem is that it takes way less time for this sort of thing to proliferate than it does for people and the law to catch up.

Malicious compliance, baby.

Dig it.

I’m actually not an optimist, and didn’t expect to be saying that even a few months ago. My adult life has largely corresponded to the post-WTC march of fascist mass surveillance and I was one of a handful of people who actually opposed it back in college in the 2000’s.

I just don’t see how any of the three companies get their tech to work properly and they 100% are not going to self-regulate.

Just this month Flock has lost hundreds of contracts in 36 US states. That is some serious bipartisan anger. If you’ve got 9 minutes and want to hear more about why I think how I do, I made a video on it this week.

Probably a few.

I don’t think it’s going to matter though. This is an issue that, inexplicably, has pissed off even people who are largely apolitical. The only way Motorola or Axon escape Flock’s fate is by acting ethically and/or having mass surveillance technology that actually works instead of failing spectacularly all the time, and neither of those scenarios seems probable given the current climate of ‘moving fast and breaking things’.

Well, I’m glad some of these bastards are getting what they wanted.

What’s wild is how anti-surveillance he’s been publicly, so if this is true, it’s yet another instance where he’s stated something publicly that is outright hypocritical. (Like the time he pretended to be ‘immunized’.)

But yeah. What an asshole.

I do think eventually litigation is going to limit this Flock nonsense, but it’ll be after a spectacularly violent event. Some stalker’s going to kill a whole family and that’ll do it.

I’ve read about that. You’re not wrong. Literal horror movie shit.

So many fucking horror stories about Flock and how their cameras are misused. The one that makes my skin crawl the most was the Texas cop who stalked someone traveling out of state for an abortion, seeing as how one’s geographical location here in the US largely dictates their right to privacy and bodily autonomy. (And it’s a clear violation of civil liberties to stalk them using a nationwide dragnet.)

If anyone’s bored, I made a video this week about a vigilante in Suffolk Virginia who (allegedly) destroyed more than a dozen of them.

My suggestion, if you’re serious: Get a heavy metal trunk or storage box and keep it under your bed as far from the access point as possible. Then you’ll have to pull it out and, maybe lift it, in order to access your snacks.

Could even get a regular trunk and just stick a weight plate in it. That might even be better, as you can switch it out for something heavier when you get stronger.

Also a good way to manage cell phone addiction.

I love the creativity.

Yeah, the owner’s a serious billionaire douche bag.

I was tempted to make a video about him but he’s also infamously petty, even with people like me who don’t matter, and I don’t need a billionaire blowing up my life because I made a mean video about him. (Even if it’s deserved.)

It’s wild to think that with the same amount of power Obama and Biden had, that Donald has completely rearranged the landscape of American politics, and once the post-tariff trade agreements kick in (rerouting supply chains around rather than through the US) and the BBB puts the kill shot on the poor and middle class, I think that the next year or two will be a clear historical demarcation line.

The US could have also taken the Sackler family out to sea and disappeared them, but we didn’t. I think that would have been an appropriate punishment (if a little too lenient) for engineering a nationwide addiction crisis.

But your point stands.

The American brand is permanently tarnished, and it’s going to be a bummer to see the consequences unfold in the coming years.

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Feels good man.