Artists boycott music venues using face-scanning technology
More than 100 artists, including Tom Morello and Zack De La Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, have clubbed together to boycott venues that use modern face-scanning technology. Other artists involved in the boycott include Boots Riley, Wheatus, Anti-Flag and Downtown Boys.
The action was elicited by the digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future, which has protested the use of such technologies in recent months. Several independent venues have already joined the cause, pledging not to use face scanners, including the House of Yes in Brooklyn, the Lyric Hyperion in Los Angeles, and Black Cat in Washington DC.
Leila Nashashibi, a Fight for the Future member, stated in press materials: “Surveillance tech companies are pitching biometric data tools as ‘innovative’ and helpful for increasing efficiency and security. Not only is this false, it’s morally corrupt.”
“For starters, this technology is so inaccurate that it actually creates more harm and problems than it solves through misidentification and other technical faultiness,” she continued. “Even scarier, though, is a world in which all facial recognition technology works 100% perfectly – in other words, a world in which privacy is nonexistent, where we’re identified, watched, and surveilled everywhere we go.”
The action began after Madison Square Garden used face-scanning technology to locate and banish lawyers currently suing them.
“This invasive biometric surveillance isn’t safe, especially for Black and brown people who have been falsely arrested or ejected from public places due to the tech’s baked-in discrimination,” reads the pledge.
“In recent years, a coalition of musicians, fans, and human rights groups successfully got more than 40 of the world’s largest music festivals, including Bonnaroo and Coachella, to say they won’t use facial recognition at events,” the pledge continues. “But now this tech is starting to spread — not only as a surveillance tool but also as a form of ‘paperless’ ticketing and payment.”
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.