i dunno if anyone maybe needs some good news for a change but ... remember those students who were told by their administration that they weren't allowed to introduce a student gov resolution to ban facial recognition?
it just passed overwhelmingly.
vice.com/en_us/article/…
it just passed overwhelmingly.
vice.com/en_us/article/…
Here's the story: students at Oakland Community College, near Detroit, were originally told by their administration that they were not allowed to introduce a student government resolution to ban the use of facial recognition surveillance on campus.
Then, on top of that, they were told they were not allowed to even host A FORUM on the topic of banning facial recognition surveillance on campus. They already had the event planned and had invited speakers from @justcitydetroit and @ACLUofMichigan.
That's ... obviously illegal and violates the First Amendment. So the students, along with @fightfortheftr and the @ACLUofMichigan, sent a letter to the administration basically telling them they were about to open a gigantic can of Internet shitstorm / lawsuits.
The college administration caved almost immediately. They told the students they were sorry and that yes, they were allowed to both host the forum and introduce the student government resolution. Here's a photo from the forum. @fightfortheftr paid for some pizzas for them :-) 
Then, the saga continued. The Dean of Students tried to delay a vote on the resolution, and with campus closed due to COVID-19, they almost successfully derailed the vote and pushed it until next year, when it could have lost a lot of momentum (students graduate, etc.)
But the students kept fighting. They wrote a righteous letter to the admin, got the resolution back on the ballot, AND TODAY IT PASSED OVERWHELMINGLY, 68% - 32% with nearly 1,800 students voting. To my knowledge its the first student gov resolution like this to pass in the US.
This might feel like a small victory. It's a voluntary student government resolution at a small community college in Michigan. But it brought a huge smile to my face, because it's the perfect example of the power of organizing. These students refused to take no for an answer.
And the topic of #facialrecognition is as relevant as ever. Sketchy af companies like Clearview AI are salivating over the COVID-19 crisis. They see it as nothing but a business opportunity to sell their creepy, invasive, racist, and ineffective software to the government.
The more we can show widespread resistance to the use of facial recognition for surveillance purposes, the more we can slow down the spread of this dangerous technology. The students at Oakland Community College are freakin heroes. Give em a retweet and show some love.
Big shout out to Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (who seem to not be on Twitter anymore?) who helped lead the national campaign to keep facial recognition surveillance off of college campuses. The struggle continues. banfacialrecognition.com/campus
