{"slug": "anti-surveillance-protestors-flock-to-chris-larsens-house", "title": "Anti-surveillance protestors flock to Chris Larsen’s house", "summary": "Anti-surveillance protestors gathered outside Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen's home in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood on Friday to criticize his $9.4 million grant to the city for Flock Safety license plate readers and other surveillance technology. The protest, part of a nationwide week of action against automated license plate readers organized by privacy group DeFlock, included Sunrise Movement organizer Luc Bouchard, who told ABC News, \"He feels entitled to watch us. We came to his house to watch him.", "body_md": "*While the normies were resting, we mainlined tech discourse all weekend to bring you the latest trends, rumors, fights, and innovations from the most manic corners of the internet. This week: Anti-surveillance protestors gather in Russian Hill, tech hijinks hit the local cafe scene, and a VC heavyweight laments the lost soul of the tech industry.*\n\n*This is Manic Monday.*\n\n**The Ripple effect**\n\nProtestors flocked to billionaire and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s Russian Hill last Friday to criticize the cryptocurrency mogul’s massive investments into Flock Safety license plate readers and other surveillance technology in San Francisco. The protest was a part of a nationwide [week of action](https://www.noalprs.com/) against automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, organized by [DeFlock](https://deflock.org/about), a privacy rights activist group.\n\nLike data centers, surveillance technology like Flock cameras are increasingly becoming political lightning rods for anti-AI groups, and in some recent cases the backlash has been powerful enough to effect some change: Consider the Castro gay bars that recently [removed controversial facial ID tech](https://sf.gazetteer.co/members-of-the-lgbtq-community-have-legitimate-reasons-to-be-sensitive-about-privacy) after digital rights activists called for a boycott of their businesses, or the [businesses in Europe](https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/meta-smart-glasses-being-banned-171217858.html) and even [US government entities](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/technology/ice-meta-smart-glasses.html) that are banning Meta glasses, citing privacy concerns. Even Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley has started to adopt a more cordial posture toward critics in recent interviews, [telling Fox News on Saturday](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/23/flock-ceo-calls-for-compromise-as-surveillance-company-faces-growing-backlash/) a national “compromise” between safety and privacy is the best solution to the growing public anger against his company and its peers.\n\nThis time, the protestors targeted Larsen largely because of the [$9.4 million grant he gave to the city last August](https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-takes-key-step-towards-opening-new-real-time-investigation-center-that-will-leverage-new-technology-to-improve-public-safety), earmarked to equip the San Francisco Police Department’s Real-Time Investigation Center with “modern crime-fighting tools.” Outside Larsen’s home on Hyde Street, Luc Bouchard, an organizer from the youth climate activist group Sunrise Movement, [told ABC News](https://abc7news.com/post/flock-cameras-surveillance-use-group-protests-outside-cryptocurrency-billionaire-chris-larsens-home-san-francisco/19721357/), “He feels entitled to watch us. We came to his house to watch him.” Besides a few\n\n[detractors](https://x.com/Random_Mcgyver/status/2091663714323951684)touting how safe SF has become since the city\n\n[installed 400 Flock cameras in 2024](https://www.sf.gov/news--san-franciscos-new-public-safety-camera-technology-delivering-early-results), the response to the protest online has been\n\n[widely](https://x.com/TonyDonkya/status/2091690286254584000)\n\n[positive](https://x.com/ann_nomura/status/2091696432835387861). —\n\n*Cydney Hayes*\n\n**One flat byte, please**\n\nTwo local baristas were caught looking [shocked](https://x.com/neo_antiquarian/status/2091755832925176235) and [appalled](https://x.com/erikschutzler/status/2091375277167546545) when a humanoid robot clunked up to the counter at their place of work, presumably to order a steaming cup of compute (or something equally as stupid). The original poster, Tymek Staniszewski, [called it](https://x.com/tymek_st/status/2090978577420611794) an “Only in SF moment,” when he posted the photo from CoffeeShop in Dogpatch, a known haunt of Y Combinator founders like himself. And while that may be true, that this sort of nonsense indeed [only happens in SF](https://x.com/_lizharvey/status/2091824624292049266), it is probably also true that, [in the words of one commenter](https://x.com/DimaGravez/status/2091293402101149864) (another AI founder, of course), the “girls at the counter are so sick of this sf bs.” —*C.H.*\n\n**And in other tech cafe news…**\n\nA new “freedom”-themed coffee shop, whose backers have ties to the highly controversial founder of Fin (f.k.a. Intercom), is set to open in Polk Gulch, the *San Francisco Chronicle** *reported yesterday*. *Details at the bottom of the cafe’s [website](https://frdm.coffee/jobs) — whose meta description reads, “bold, unapologetic, American. Brewed in the USA.” — suggests that it will be located at 1850 Polk St. The *Chron *also did some digging into who’s behind the project: Freedom Coffee’s CEO, CFO, and secretary is Katie Tolstedt, who is also involved with the San Francisco Freedom Club, a right-wing social club founded by Eoghan McCabe.\n\nMcCabe — an Irish-born, outspoken MAGA supporter, who organized the [politically-charged Iryna Zarutska murals](https://sf.gazetteer.co/downtown-murals-of-iryna-zarutska-are-right-wing-dogwhistles) around the city and is the primary funder of the [tech-friendly “new media” studio Soon Technology](https://sf.gazetteer.co/soon-technology-is-tech-pilled-and-loving-it) — told the *Chronicle *there is no connection between the SF Freedom Club and Freedom Coffee, despite his and Tolstedt’s long history of professional collaboration. Either way, the reaction to the news so far has been a combination of local #freedom lovers praising the idea (“I already love the place,” wrote [one Bitcoin bro](https://x.com/AndrewBTC/status/2091739355723517980), who describes himself as a “whitepilled” “steak & sun enjoyer”), and a sarcastic thread of right-wing coffee puns. (IMO, [Fascist Americano](https://x.com/kortizart/status/2091647227613921522) was the winner.) —*C.H.*\n\n**Pointing the finger **\n\nVenture capital heavyweight Chamath Palihapitiya just took a swing at Silicon Valley culture, [telling the All-In Podcast](https://x.com/dnapway/status/2090917716349899019)\n\n*that SV has “completely lost what made it great”: weirdos, fringe players, and idealists. Instead, Chamath compared today’s SV to a different institution: Harvard, implying that the university is more about credentials than creativity. “All we have done is focused on making money in every single way that we can, hand over fist,” Chamath said. Fair play, but perhaps Chamath’s*\n\n[billions in net worth](https://www.forbes.com/profile/chamath-palihapitiya/)derived from the VC economy makes him a less-than-ideal messenger. Michael Guimarin of the think-tank\n\n[Boyd Institute](https://boydinstitute.org/about), for example, called Chamath out for being part of a posse that “consumed the culture of Silicon Valley” to get rich. “Did they ‘pass it on’? Mentor? Build stuff for fun? Contribute to the community? No, nothing,”\n\n[he wrote on X](https://x.com/Guimarin/status/2091686072531173424?s=20). NVIDIA Director of Development Tech Nader Khalili also chimed in,\n\n[posting a list of examples](https://x.com/NaderLikeLadder/status/2091332618172473664)of Chamath insulting the exact kind of idealists that he claims are now lost. —\n\n*Eddie Kim*\n\n**Vibeposting or propaganda? **\n\nThe aestheticization of anti-AI content is in full force these days. If you’re plugged into the Tech Discourse®, odds are that you’ve been seeing more videos [with Pinterest-perfect decor and Gen Z vibes](https://x.com/hecubian_devil/status/2091781997773431070), warning about the existential threat of chatbots and Big AI surveillance. Is this an organic anti-AI social media movement, or something a little more manufactured? First of all, it’s *super ironic* that there’s a ton of anti-AI content online that is [clearly AI-generated slop](https://x.com/Polymarket/status/2091946559659217404?s=20). Even more intriguing, however, is the phenomenon of [nonprofits and activist groups paying money](https://x.com/benawad/status/2086953365284732931) for anti-AI posts by content creators, as YouTuber and game developer [Ben Awad pointed out on X](https://x.com/benawad/status/2086953365284732931). *User Mag* founder Taylor Lorenz [responded critically](https://x.com/TaylorLorenz/status/2091608914240614530), noting that “there are a litany of these sorts of ‘AI safety’ orgs that will quietly pay you massive amounts of $$ for undisclosed propaganda.” ([Even the Chinese Communist Party, apparently!](https://x.com/dylan522p/status/2091694046888792462)) Of course, it’s well established that pro-AI forces are also pumping money into content with the hope of soothing AI fears, but I have a feeling that, as Lorenz says, the anti-AI stuff performs better on social media. Then again, this was perhaps avoidable: Sam Altman admits that AI companies spooked the masses with claims that it will eliminate jobs and potentially take over the world. —*E.K.*\n\n**The week ahead: **NVIDIA buys Nestle, securing all the water it could possibly need for data centers and bringing to life the plot of the 2008 James Bond flick *Quantum of Solace.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/anti-surveillance-protestors-flock-to-chris-larsens-house", "canonical_source": "https://sf.gazetteer.co/anti-surveillance-protestors-flock-to-chris-larsens-house", "published_at": "2026-08-24 21:08:34+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-24 21:14:03.298832+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Chris Larsen", "Ripple", "Flock Safety", "San Francisco Police Department", "DeFlock", "Sunrise Movement", "Luc Bouchard", "Garrett Langley"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/anti-surveillance-protestors-flock-to-chris-larsens-house", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/anti-surveillance-protestors-flock-to-chris-larsens-house.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/anti-surveillance-protestors-flock-to-chris-larsens-house.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/anti-surveillance-protestors-flock-to-chris-larsens-house.jsonld"}}