Redditors Are Celebrating the Cutting Down of Flock Surveillance Towers With Based Memes

Redditors are celebrating the vandalism of Flock Safety's automatic license plate readers with memes and support for those charged, as the subreddit r/FlockSurveillance grows to 422,000 members. The vandalism reflects a broader backlash against mass surveillance, with activists also winning contract cancellations like the LAPD's recent decision.

The United States is having something of a national referendum on mass surveillance as of late. Embodied most infamously by video surveillance company Flock Safety, Americans from all walks of life are waging war against the proliferation of the company’s automatic license plate readers ALPR , which the ACLU warns https://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/get-the-flock-out now number in the tens of thousands. Plenty of communities are organizing campaigns to out-muscle municipal leaders or their cheerleaders on the local police force, and by-and-large, they’re working. Whether in rural towns or sprawling cities, activists who can mobilize citizens to flood council meetings and hold picket signs are finding success https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-surveillance-flock-contracts . Perhaps most prominently, the Los Angeles Police Department https://futurism.com/future-society/lapd-abandons-flock-contract-false-alarm recently allowed its three-year contract with Flock to expire, citing democratic pushback as a significant pressure point. There’s also another, less-legal side to the anti-Flock sentiment: a rising tide of vandalism. Not content to wait for local officials to strike down ALPR contracts, concerned citizens are taking matters into their own hands by disabling or cutting down https://futurism.com/future-society/opposition-ai-surveillance-cameras Flock camera towers wherever they’re found. But what started as a collection of separate individuals is now rising to the level of a viral phenomenon, as privacy-minded Redditors take to the web to celebrate those who are fighting back with an outpouring of ironic memes and hype reels. Ground zero for this community appears to be the subreddit r/FlockSurveillance. The forum hosts some 422,000 “activists,” who flood the channel with over 11,000 contributions per week. Some of the top posts on the subreddit are memes celebrating Flock vandalism: there are crude Photoshop jobs re-imagining covers of the Berenstain Bears https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/s/V0GEmT0Q2s as anti-Flock activists https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/s/quTkl9rh4b , hand-drawn signs encouraging copper thieves https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/s/LSp24xG86N to cash in on Flock innards, and an ALPR-themed redesign https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/comments/1uwlecc/fuck flock/ of the Gadsden flag, to name a few. Those who’ve been caught and charged with vandalizing ALPRs become digital folk heroes on the subreddit. When news broke https://futurism.com/future-society/air-force-engineer-flock-surveillance-support-legal-gofundme that US Air Force engineer Jeffrey Sovern had been charged in connection to the destruction of 13 Flock devices, redditors flooded the post with praise, sharing links https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/comments/1upjh3r/comment/ow0ps81/?utm source=share&utm medium=web3x&utm name=web3xcss&utm term=1&utm content=share button to his legal defense fund and encouraging others to donate. Sovern’s GoFundMe now stands at over $40,000, compared to around $15,440 in early July. “I donated to him because those charges are bulls ,” one redditor replied https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/comments/1upjh3r/comment/ow3kkrx/?utm source=share&utm medium=web3x&utm name=web3xcss&utm term=1&utm content=share button . In addition to memes, the subreddit has become a destination for serious discussion around ALPRs and surveillance in general. One developer used the forum as a launch pad https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/comments/1sy3te2/i built flockhopper for ios an app that routes/ for their app FlockHopper, a navigation app that helps travelers avoid ALRPs. Others use it to share important developments https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/comments/1uwji5r/georgia charged 5 cops for flock stalking busted/ relevant to the anti-Flock crowd, to get advice on Freedom of Information Act requests https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/comments/1um0hti/so what do i do when my foia request documents/ , and to dispel misinformation https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/comments/1uwfzhx/can flock really clone everything thats on your/ . “As entertaining a trend as it is, will a few Redditors knocking a few poles over really make a difference?” one redditor asked the group. “Even a single grain of rice can tip the scales,” a user replied. More on Flock: Man Trapped in Dystopian Nightmare Thanks to AI Surveillance Cameras Flagging His Every Move https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-ai-surveillance-colorado