Students and Activists Announce National Day of Action to Ban Facial Recognition from College Campuses

Student groups are organizing on March 2 to deliver an open letter to campus administrations around the country, and stage creative protests to draw awareness to the dangers of facial recognition.

With more than 50 universities across the US declaring they do not plan to use facial recognition, and UCLA announcing policies to implement the technology amidst protest, students and activists are escalating our campaign to stop invasive biometric surveillance technology from invading college campuses. Today we’re announcing a national campus day of action on March 2nd. Students across the country will organize to reject facial recognition’s false promises of safety, and stand against the idea of biased 24/7 tracking and analysis of everyone on campus.

In a campaign document that is being distributed by Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the NYCLU, and Fight for the Future, campus groups can learn more about what to plan for their day of action, and how to receive support from fellow organizers. Students will deliver thousands of petition signatures and an open letter to administrators. On some campuses they will also organize tabling events or creative acts of protest.

Momentum is growing, as thousands of students, faculty, and alumni have signed a petition to ban the technology, 400 concerned community members have emailed UCLA over the past week, and a facial recognition vendor removed their page marketing to college campuses when questioned by a reporter.

Whatever color a campus is on our scorecard, student groups from every campus are invited to participate in solidarity with those whose safety is being threatened by facial recognition. The goal is to get as many campuses to participate as possible.

While there have been several reports indicating that elementary and grade schools are experimenting with facial recognition, the technology is not widely used at US colleges and universities. Let’s keep it that way.

If you want to get involved or help coordinate a Day of Action event on your campus, email team@fightforthefuture.org

Media inquiries: press@fightforthefuture.org or 978–852–6457

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