About this episode

The episode discusses police surveillance of individuals criticizing AI and the implications for free speech.

Are you on a government watchlist just for criticizing AI? SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon for bonus episodes, monthly Q&A livestreams, and more: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz A shocking new investigation from The Intercept reveals that police are tracking seemingly anyone who expresses skepticism or anger about the tech industry online. In this episode of Free Speech Friday, journalist Sam Biddle joins me to dive deep into a terrifying new report from The Intercept exposing how Philadelphia police officers admitted to monitoring legitimate First Amendment activity. Law enforcement documents show that specialized "Fusion Centers" are scanning social media, message boards, and Facebook to flag users posting anti-AI and anti-data center sentiments. Sam and I discuss the post-9/11 surveillance apparatus, how local police use tools like Data Miner to monitor online discussions, and why the Trump administration is aligning with tech billionaires and crypto lobbyists to turn AI into a national security priority. Is your private Signal group chat safe from police infiltration? Why are corporate platforms…

People in this episode

Host: Taylor Lorenz

Guest: Sam Biddle

Topics covered

• government surveillance
• AI criticism
• First Amendment rights
• police monitoring
• social media
• data privacy

Keywords

• government watchlist
• AI
• surveillance
• First Amendment
• social media monitoring
• anti-tech activism
• Fusion Centers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Intercept, Meta, Trump administration, Data Miner

Places: Philadelphia

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