How Americans Are Surveilled During Protests
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2025
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There have been a number of protests in the past few months pushing back against President Trump’s most recent policy changes, and we're likely to see more. Today on the show, WIRED’s Senior Editor of Security and Investigations, Andrew Couts, talks us through the technology being used by law enforcement to surveil protests, how surveillance tech has evolved over the years, and what it means for anyone taking to the streets or posting to social media to voice their concerns. Plus, we share WIRED tips on how to stay safe, should you choose to protest.
You can follow our hosts on Bluesky— Michael Calore is @snackfight, Lauren Goode is @laurengoode, and Katie Drummond is @katie-drummond.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | No, justice! |
| 0:02.0 | No peace! |
| 0:03.0 | Oh, ho! |
| 0:04.0 | Trump and Musk are good to know. |
| 0:06.0 | People are taking to the streets to challenge President Donald Trump's most recent policy changes, |
| 0:11.0 | some of which have been created with the aid of Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency. |
| 0:18.0 | All 50 states saw these so-called hands-off rallies, and so did a few cities in Europe. |
| 0:27.6 | The first hands-off protest occurred earlier this month. |
| 0:35.1 | The Tesla take-down demonstrations have been rolling for weeks, |
| 0:38.0 | and from the feel of it, |
| 0:39.2 | we're looking at a summer full of protests. |
| 0:42.2 | So today, we're talking about the risks |
| 0:44.5 | of being surveilled by law enforcement |
| 0:46.3 | during protests. |
| 0:48.2 | We'll talk about how surveillance tech is being used, |
| 0:51.0 | how it's evolved over the years, |
| 0:52.8 | and what it means for anyone taking to the streets |
| 0:55.0 | or posting to social media to voice their concerns. This is Wired's Uncanny Valley, a show about |
| 1:02.5 | the people, power, and influence of Silicon Valley. I'm Michael Colore, director of consumer |
| 1:07.9 | tech and culture here at Wired. And I'm Lauren Good. I'm a senior writer at Wired. |
| 1:12.0 | Katie Drummond is out today, but we're joined by Wired's senior editor of security and |
| 1:16.4 | investigations, Andrew Coutts. |
... |
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