Over 100 artists boycott venues that use face recognition

San Francisco: Amid privacy and discrimination concerns over modern facial recognition technology, a group of more than 100 top artists and music bands have decided to boycott big venues like Madison Square Garden in New York.

The leading artists like Rage Against the Machine, Boots Riley, Anti-Flag, Wheatus, Downtown Boys and others took part in a protest by digital rights advocacy group 'Fight for the Future' against the use of face recognition technology at performance venues

According to the group, this invasive biometric surveillance isn't safe, especially for Black and brown people who have been falsely arrested or ejected from public places due to the tech's baked-in discrimination.

The venue, Madison Square Garden, recently made headlines as lawyers for firms actively litigating against venue owner MSG Entertainment reported being kicked out or denied entry after being flagged by the face recognition technology.

In recent years, a coalition of musicians, fans, and human rights groups successfully got more than 40 of the world's largest music festivals, including Bonnaroo and Coachella, to say they won't use facial recognition at events. But now this tech is starting to spread, not only as a surveillance tool, but also as a form of 'paperless' ticketing and payment, said the advocacy group.

Leila Nashashibi, a campaigner at Fight for the Future, said in a statement that surveillance tech companies are pitching biometric data tools as 'innovative' and helpful for increasing efficiency and security.

"Not only is this false, it's morally corrupt. For starters, this technology is so inaccurate that it actually creates more harm and problems than it solves, through misidentification and other technical faultiness," Nashashibi added.

With inputs from IANS