As protests continue to swell across the United States in response to aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, civilians are turning to homebrew digital tools to track ICE arrests and raids in real time. But restricted government documents, obtained by the nonprofit watchdog Property of the People, show that US …
Read More »The Chatbot Disinfo Inflaming the LA Protests
Zoë Schiffer: Oh, wow. Leah Feiger: Yeah, exactly. Who has Trump’s ear already. This became widespread. And so we were talking about people went to X’s Grok and they were like, “Grok, what is this?” And what did Grok tell them? No, no. Grok said these were not actually images …
Read More »CBP’s Predator Drone Flights Over LA Are a Dangerous Escalation
On Wednesday, United States Customs and Border Protection confirmed to 404 Media that it has been flying Predator drones over Los Angeles amid the LA protests. The military drones, a CBP statement said, “are supporting our federal law enforcement partners in the Greater Los Angeles area, including Immigration and Customs …
Read More »Here’s What Marines and the National Guard Can (and Can’t) Do at LA Protests
That said, there are numerous scenarios in which the military can provide assistance to police, including by giving them “information” obtained “in the normal course” of their duties, unless applicable privacy laws prohibit it. Military members can also provide police with a wide variety of assistance so long as it’s …
Read More »How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance
If you insist on using biometric unlocking methods to have faster access to your devices, keep in mind that some phones have an emergency function to disable these types of locks. Hold the wake button and one of the volume buttons simultaneously on an iPhone, for instance, and it will …
Read More »How Waymo Handles Footage From Events Like the LA Immigration Protests
Waymo declined to answer questions from WIRED about how many cameras are inside its vehicles, exactly how long footage is retained, and whether the company has ever turned over footage to US federal law enforcement or a branch of the military. Karp did note, however, that the company’s engineering team …
Read More »Protesting Tips: What to Bring, How to Act, How to Stay Safe
“The most important thing to realize,” Williams says, “is that you’re showing up in solidarity with other people. It’s not your job to decide how things should go. It’s your job to show up and listen and be in support. Deprioritizing yourself is an incredibly important part of the experience.” …
Read More »AI Chatbots Are Making LA Protest Disinformation Worse
In another instance of Grok boosting disinformation about the protests, Mike Crispi, chair of America First Republicans of New Jersey and a 2024 Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention, posted a picture of a pile of bricks on the side of the road with the comment: ”The international sign …
Read More »The ‘Long-Term Danger’ of Trump Sending Troops to the LA Protests
In contrast, Rutgers University professor Bruce Afran says deploying military forces against Americans is “completely unconstitutional” in the absence of a true state of domestic insurrection. “There was an attack on ICE’s offices, the doorways, there was some graffiti, there were images of protesters breaking into a guardhouse, which was …
Read More »What Tear Gas and Rubber Bullets Do to the Human Body
A 2014 study by the US military has also found that exposure to tear gas and pepper spray make people vulnerable to respiratory infections in the week following exposure compared with the week before exposure. Army recruits exposed to CS tear gas just once during basic training had a much …
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