crowdsourcing state surveillance

Alexandra Samuel has a good post up about the willful participation of people in using social media to crowdsource surveillance after the Vancouver riots:

But there is a big difference between individuals cooperating with law enforcement — carefully, thoughtfully and with discretion, to reflect the presumption of innocence — and an online mob that has taken the job of law enforcement into its own hands. A Facebook page is gathering pictures and comments from thousands of people who are offering to help identify riot participants. A Tumblr site is crowdsourcing the creation of a Vancouver 2011 Riot Criminal List. And now Premier Christy Clark is going beyond a simple request to share pictures with police, and suggesting that people do so publicly

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2 Responses to crowdsourcing state surveillance

  1. Laurna Tallman says:

    Hi, Michael,
    I posted to another thread last updated a few years ago. I just wanted to call your attention to that Foucault issue.

    I am appalled by the loss of privacy implicit in the social media, the archiving of all Twits by the Smithsonian and the way Facebook is run, just for starters. Alexandra Samuel’s point is well-taken. The mindless co-operation of the community outside of the structures of government and the law should be disallowed. Does Christy Clark not realize that such opportunist policing is not morally superior to the behaviour of the rioters?
    many thanks.
    Laurna

  2. Michael says:

    I just (finally) replied to that comment, Laurna. Sorry, it had gotten caught by my spam filter.

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