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tsamina mina, eh eh, they’re raiding your apartment, eh eh.
You’d love to be in the thick of it, sure, but there is an upside to watching the World Cup from afar… and it’s not just the thousands saved on tickets and drinks.
The thing about a global event that wraps millions of people up in tribalism and sheer spectacle is, it’s a hella-effective distraction.
Trump probably couldn’t point US talisman Christian Pulisic out of a lineup, but you can bet ICE has its eye on who to follow up on within the stands – all the way to their bus, and their overpriced Airbnb.
According to a recent Wired article, experts have warned that heightened terrorism concerns linked to the war in Iran could be used by Trump and co to justify the deployment of invasive surveillance tech. Human Rights Watch has also asked for an ‘ICE truce’ for the duration of the event, which is like begging your garden tree to grow money.
Trump has, and always will, use the excuse of security preparedness to push his personal agendas. Need I remind you, he literally utilised his own assassination attempt in a hotel conference room to drudge up old blueprints for that lavish White House ballroom in April.
As part of preparations to host the World Cup, nearly $400 million has been sunk into shiny new drones and counter-drone capabilities across the 16 venues in the US, Canada, and Mexico. That’s just for starters, too.
There’s Vancouver’s 200 shiny new cameras, Toronto’s whole-ass police command centre, and Kansas City’s conveniently rolled out facial recognition bus pilot. Boston Stadium is also offering spectators the option to pay for items using their actual face. I’m sure that’s purely about convenience, and all the biometrics and face scans won’t end up in federal databases.
There are even AI-powered robot dogs chilling outside several stadiums equipped with facial recognition technology, like something from The Man in the High Castle or Wolfenstein. How very reassuring.
‘Defense companies are using major sporting events as a global showcase to normalise often battlefield-tested surveillance tools for civilian life as safety solutions, turning stadiums into laboratories for technologies that were never designed with our rights in mind,’ Ilia Siatitsa, lead of the Militarization of Tech Project at Privacy International, told Wired.
As you can imagine, all of this expensive, intrusive technology won’t simply be packed up and shipped off once the tournament is over in a month, and there’s been little clarity on what data they’re currently collecting and retaining. With all the footie, though, people aren’t inclined to dig too much.
‘These systems rarely remain limited to their initial purpose and could be used by the current or another administration to suppress civil liberties and human rights in the future,’ explained Privacy International’s Clara Lilley.
Publicly, there’s been next-to-nothing disclosed about security contracts, but I’m sure Trump will use these tools with the utmost integrity. And If drones end up hovering around construction sites in six months’ time, I’m sure there will be a logical explanation for it.
📴 screen locked
Is a social media ban the answer? 5 experts weigh-in – dazed
Keir Starmer has officially made touching grass mandatory for anyone under 16 in the UK. A full-scale social media ban will be in effect by spring 2027, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), YouTube, Threads, Snapchat, Reddit, Twitch, and Kick. Gen Alphas are understandably fuming they can no longer watch game trailers or how-to videos on YouTube, but a government consultation says 9 in 10 parents are in favour of keeping teens off the socials completely until 16. Dazed has spoken to five experts and collated their thoughts on whether 1) the ban will work, and 2) it will make online life safer or potentially more dangerous for young people. Have a look and pick a side of the fence. Read more
Phones will soon have a ‘kill switch’ to deter muggers in the UK – thred
Now for a shameless self-plug. I recently covered a news story on how phones in the UK will soon be equipped with a ‘kill switch’ rendering devices unfloggable if stolen. London is the phone theft capital of the world, with 200 phones stolen every day, and the associated black market worth an eyewatering £50 million per year. The purple banners warning to ‘mind the grab’ haven’t proven all that effective, and Apple has teamed up with the MET to effectively kill any phone immediately after it’s reported stolen. The premise is simple. If a phone can’t be reactivated or even connect to a network, it’s worth sweet f*ck all. With resale value gone, the motivation for muggers will hopefully take a hit too. Better late than never. Read more
🤖 artificial indiscretions
Inside the fight over Claude Mythos 5 – the verge
The Verge unpacks the row over Anthropic’s newest AI models, Claude Mythos 5 and Fable 5, after the US government reportedly told the company to suspend access for any foreign national, including some of its own employees. The concern was that Fable 5’s guardrails could be jailbroken, while Mythos 5 had already been framed by Anthropic as powerful enough to keep away from general release. That left the company in the dumb position of having to rush to Washington and explain that its scary model wasn’t actually about that life. The article also gets into wider fears that tempering US models could see Chinese rivals jump ahead. It sounds obvious, but don’t try to shit people up with your promo, and maybe your product won’t be called into disrepute by officials. Read more
The AI layoff wave is becoming a powder keg – techcrunch
AI is being used as an excuse to lay people off without having to build a case that would stand up in an industrial tribunal. Layoffs linked to AI overhauls nearly hit 40,000 in a single month according to TechCrunch, and the technology has been cited as the primary reason for cuts across industries for three months running. In one embarrassing instance the story highlights, Block received flak for major layoffs, blamed a new AI way of working for the change, and then Jack Dorsey flat out admitted the company had overhired. Marc Andreessen has dubbed AI the new ‘silver bullet excuse’ for doling out P45s. Who needs integrity when a single subscription can handle the workload of five junior employees? Read more
