Author: Juniper Fairchild

Footage of a couple on a giant screen during a Coldplay concert in Boston went viral because the man and woman were married—but not to each other. Within minutes of the video being posted on TikTok and X, users banded together to identify the couple in the video using AI and facial recognition.

Crowdsourced social media investigations are becoming more common, and those responsible are increasingly using dystopian surveillance technologies that police and federal agencies are using against illegal immigrants and marginalized groups. At the same time, our privacy is being eroded.

Jason Koebler of 404 Media sat down with Taylor Lorenz to explore the origins of the surveillance and entertainment economy, how and why it evolved, and what we can do to protect ourselves.

The UK’s Online Safety Act came into force this week and has wreaked enormous havoc. Entire forums, websites, communities, and important journalistic content are being censored. Users are being forced to scan their faces to use apps like Spotify and YouTube.

Like all such terrible censorship laws, the Online Safety Act claims to protect children from the dangers of pornographic and adult content. However, immediately after it came into force, platforms began classifying almost all breaking news, war reports, investigative journalism, political protest materials, and information on reproductive and public health as “explicit” or “harmful” content, thus denying access to it to anyone under 18.

Taylor Lorenz explains the consequences of the UK’s Online Safety Act, its significance for the future of the internet, and what we in the US face if we don’t act quickly to protect free speech online.