People who take part in Saturday’s mass “No Kings” protest against President Donald Trump’s administration may be targeted for federal government surveillance with a range of technology that could include facial recognition and phone hacking, civil libertarians said.

“No Kings” organizers expect 2,600 rallies across all 50 U.S. states. But the level of surveillance at protests and the type of technology in use is likely to be both location-specific and dependent on the police forces present, said Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Friday.

“Under previous administrations, law enforcement surveillance of peaceful demonstrations was already commonplace and corrosive of free expression,” Ryan Shapiro, executive director of government transparency group Property of the People, said in an email Friday.

“Given Trump’s open hostility to even minor dissent, such surveillance now poses an existential threat to what remains of American democracy and only underscores the need for mass protest.” One federal law enforcement agency, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been implementing Trump’s immigration crackdown and has amassed a digital surveillance arsenal, according to various news outlets.

Surveillance isn’t limited to federal agencies. Multiple local police departments have used facial recognition technology, with laws governing its use varying from state to state, news outlet Stateline reported in February. Nate Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said that different technologies have different legal requirements and require specific court authorization for focused and limited use. But it’s not easy to prove that a specific person was included in an inappropriate collection of data, Wessler said.

“This is a recurring problem in trying to constrain government’s use of surveillance technologies,” he said in an interview. “They are often designed to work surreptitiously and it can be extremely hard to prove whether you or any particular person was swept up in this kind of surveillance.” The Trump administration "sidelined or fired Homeland Security staffers who might have curbed surveillance “excesses,” said Don Bell, policy counsel for the Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight.

Although the first “No Kings” protest in June overwhelmingly drew peaceful, festival-like crowds, Trump and his allies have increasingly criticized the follow-up event and described the protesters as terrorists, Hamas supporters, and far-left agitators. The accusations, made without presenting any evidence, have made some observers anxious.

“Even just what lawmakers are saying is very different this time around,” Klosowski said. “I’m a little more worried this time than I was last time.”

Plans for “No Kings” protests have drawn the attention of at least one of the U.S. government’s domestic intelligence “fusion centers” established after the 9/11 attacks, according to an alert obtained by Property of the People.

The document from the Central California Intelligence Center identified Sacramento, Fresno, and Stockton among dozens of “No Kings” protest sites.

Noting that while the protests were billed as “nonviolent action,” the center said additional intelligence reports were being planned on the rallies. The center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The National Fusion Center Association did not directly address questions about October 18 plans, but referred Reuters to a 2011 federal document, listing recommendations for law enforcement agencies regarding “First Amendment-Protected Events.”

    • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      I think anyone that cares about America wants to be known as being opposed to fascism.

      More people need to be aware of the kind of tactics being deployed against them thanks to NSPM-7 bc they’re definitely not being given mainstream news coverage.

      People are all waiting on the national guard to be deployed, but the JTTFs directed to carry out NSPM-7 already exist in every state, and are likely targeting protesters in ways that most people are not aware of.

  • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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    Cell phones get left at home, masks and hats help protect identities, and we have radios strapped to our backpacks that have first aid supplies (as well as a few things for if things got spicy) in them.

    If you’re going up against technologically up to date nazis, you don’t go using easily traceable things.

    Hell, I even used a walking stick so the way I walk is different.

    Biked to the meeting spot and locked everything up out of sight.

    If anyone we didn’t tell knew we were there, I’d be slightly surprised.

    • DNS@discuss.online
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      24 hours ago

      I applaud your efforts to stay incognito, but the minute you stepped out of your dwelling, cameras were already focused on you. From neighbors ring cameras, to businesses, to stop lights, and flock systems; we live in a heavily surveillance state. Set a few parameters on the backend to ID/locate individuals such as yourself won’t be difficult if the government really wanted to crackdown on “antifa.”

      Like some Europeans are doing, it’s time for Americans to start dismantling the mobile flock stations as a start to regain privacy. I mean heck, if you googled where the no kinga rally was and still took all the precautions to hide yourself, you still left a digital footprint.

      • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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        Well, normally I would agree with you but I don’t have neighbors close enough to see me with any sort of camera, and with biking in, flock cameras aren’t going to help anyone with anything.

        Unless someone is hiding cameras on hiking and biking trails right around where I live, cameras aren’t going to help identify a generic black blob riding a generic black bicycle as anyone specific.

        It’s funny you mention flock cameras though because I was talking to some friends yesterday and none of them had ever heard of flock, and when I pointed out the cameras, they seemed to finally realize they’re under constant surveillance, since over the last year they’ve been popping up all over the city.

        I may or may not have “jokingly” suggested we start cutting them down and go full Office Space on them.

        It’s crazy just how many cameras aren’t even actively hidden, they’re just in places you don’t normally look. Honestly shows like Person of Interest and movies like Enemy of the State back in the day made me realize just how much surveillance there is on the average citizen, and how little privacy we really have. And that’s fiction. I’m sure the reality is far worse.

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
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    Life Pro Twist: If you wanna protest, you can leave your phone at home, and wear a mask or makeup…

    • webdox@lemmy.world
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      I would not be caught dead at any gathering in Trump’s Nazi America with anything they could trace back to me. They are already using this information to punish people. This was the goal of DOGE, well one of them.

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      Gave my family that tip before they went out. Some phones were left behind because they still track location when turned off.

      They said there were lots of cameras out there, but of note was one car driving by with pricy equipment and government plates. Definitely cover faces.

  • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    Idk if this was a thing anywhere else, but in New Orleans, this rally felt so different than the last one. Not really in a good way.

    Security was there in yellow vests with radios. Allegedly they were supposed to be local activists who has been trained by the organization Indivisible, but they definitely looked like either off duty cops or feds. Like they really stuck out, and we noticed them as soon as we got there bc we were kind of worried they might be with a nationalist group.

    I’m not sure they were actually with Indivisible. They could have been feds who just got yellow vests and infiltrated/were impersonating the activist security, but they definitely weren’t activists.

    They were dispersed through the crowd, and at one point they got together in a huddle to discuss some stuff near the group I was with. We kind of eavesdropped bc they seemed so sheisty, and ended up overhearing them saying they had put detail on somebody in the crowd who seemed suspicious to them.

    • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
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      Did they do anything against the person?

      Are you sure they weren’t just trying to protect you?

      It is smart to look for MAGAts who could start problems.

      • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        I have no idea what they did after they dispersed again or who they were talking about. There were way too many people there to keep track of them.

        I didn’t even find out that Indivisible had supposedly trained local activists as security until after we left the rally. The group of people I saw huddled and discussing that protestor, were dressed as security, but didn’t look like activists.

        Discussing putting a surveillance detail on somebody doesn’t sound like something you would learn as an activist via standard safety and de-escalation training.

        Are you sure they weren’t just trying to protect you?

        If they were feds or state-federal partners, it’s impossible to believe (now more than ever), that whatever they were doing undercover at a protest had to do with keeping the Americans protesting safe.

        These are the loyalists who are acting as secret police all over the country to help overthrow the government for the far right, one city and town at a time. There is a frightening amount of overlap in the venn diagram of loyalists left in the state and federal government, and people who either hold extremist beliefs or are ok normalizing them for a paycheck.

        The group (being dismissed by the media as kids despite being 24-40 y/o) who just got caught texting each other about Hitler and gas chamber showers, weren’t even in a traditional extremist group. They were just leaders of their local Republican party.

        The article mentions at least one known state fusion center targeting No Kings. These fusion centers are part of DHS, and were created after 9/11. They have always existed to surveill and spy on American citizens, and they work in conjunction with the task force (JTTF) that Trump directed to go after “Antifa” in NSPM-7.

        Here are all the state-federal partners in my local fusion center that could have been doing this sort of surveillance even before Trump 2.0:

        • nomy@lemmy.zip
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          I actually saw some of those guys yesterday! I my situation they were escorting/ushering two pro-Israel counter protesters. I didn’t notice anything like that last time. I also noticed several guys masked up and in gloves ready for battle, a few in helmets that were definitely cops or very serious protesters.

        • klammeraffe@lemmy.cafe
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          19 hours ago

          You don’t, because you want to imagine there is hope.

          I suggest if you don’t like me that you block me, because I’m not going anywhere.

      • finitebanjo@piefed.world
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        If they didn’t fear, they wouldn’t be sending troops. If they didn’t fear, they wouldn’t be silencing the media. If they didn’t fear, they wouldn’t be threatening legislators and icons on the left, threatening judges and the Fed who issue decisions against them.

        They fear. They’re struggling to keep their small fragile control.

        • klammeraffe@lemmy.cafe
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          They are not afraid. They are mentally ill. I’m sure you’ve heard stories… Usually from Florida… of some crazy person who runs around eating faces and totally not afraid of anything. That is the Trump administration—bath salts and dementia! Should they be afraid? Probably. Are they afraid? Absolutely not.

      • Komodo Rodeo@lemmy.world
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        Aaah, OK, that makes good sense. I was trying to figure out how to integrate that into the story as I read it but started balking after the 3rd one lol NBD, thanks for the post.

  • DABDA@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    FYI @AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works:

    news outlet Stateline reported, opens new tab in February.

    The Trump administration “sidelined or fired, opens new tab” Homeland Security staffers

    described the protesters as terrorists, opens new tab, Hamas supporters, opens new tab and far-left agitators.

    according to an alert obtained by Property of the People, opens new tab.

    referred Reuters to a 2011 federal document, opens new tab listing recommendations for law enforcement

  • klammeraffe@lemmy.cafe
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    Well yeah who was dumb enough to bring an electronic device to a no kings event?!

    M o r o n s