John,
Setting a dangerous precedent in normalizing surveillance, Amazon-owned MGM Studios is putting together a new reality tv show. This show is all about airing footage from people’s Ring cameras for entertainment.1
Tell MGM: Cancel Ring Nation
Ring Nation will show personal moments like family reunions and funny pet bloopers in an attempt to put a happy face on Amazon’s surveillance dragnet. But we know that Ring is anything but safe and friendly.
Amazon Ring now partners with over 2,000 police departments.2 Through these partnerships, cops gain warrantless access to Ring footage.3 Roughly half of the police departments partnered with Amazon “are responsible for over a third of fatal police encounters nationwide”—a shocking statistic given that only around 7% of our nation’s police departments had a Ring partnership at the time.4
If we don’t cancel this show now, we’ll be creating a world where a national consumer-fueled police surveillance state is celebrated instead of stopped. Sign the petition to get Ring Nation canceled.
TAKE ACTION
Without their knowledge or consent, millions of people—neighbors, delivery workers, and children—are caught up in Amazon Ring’s surveillance dragnet.[5] This, coupled with warrantless police access to footage, erodes the fundamental basic rights that underpin our individual civil liberties and our democracy.
The data amassed from millions of Ring devices gives Amazon unprecedented power over our lives. PR spin, like Ring Nation, is how Amazon normalizes that power.
We can’t let MGM put a friendly face on this dangerous surveillance dragnet. There’s still time to mobilize a massive backlash to shut it down. Tell MGM: Don’t be complicit in the surveilling of millions. Cancel the Ring Nation tv series now.
For surveillance-free future,
Ayele, Fight for the Future
Footnotes:
1. The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/ed-markey-slams-amazon-wanda-sykes-ring-nation-1235205556/
2. Amazon Ring Police Partnerships Map. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1eYVDPh5itXq5acDT9b0BVeQwmESBa4cB&ll=36.19459170250794,-103.96982876449249&z=4
3. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2022/07/13/amazon-ring-camera-footage-police-ed-markey/
4. Electronic Frontier Foundation. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/amazons-ring-enables-over-policing-efforts-some-americas-deadliest-law-enforcement
5. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/18/amazon-ring-largest-civilian-surveillance-network-us
Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.
