(This episode was recorded before the tragic murder of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by ICE in Minneapolis yesterday).

On this episode of The Siren Podcast, Jo is joined by Siren contributor Kaivan Shroff to discuss his latest piece for MS NOW, titled: “Cell phone videos are protecting Americans — and eroding our privacy.”

There is no doubt that the thousands of videos from citizens documenting ICE are protecting Americans, and in some cases, have even saved lives. In the face of a brutal regime that lies to its citizens with every breath they take, the videos are playing a crucial role in spreading rapid-response information and organizing strategies to on the ground ICE protestors. The videos are also shining a light on the atrocities ICE is committing everyday for Americans who either once supported Trump, or never took the time to deeply examine the immigration issue.

In other words, the video documentation is rapidly turning Americans against Trump, and radicalizing them against ICE and the regime. A reported 73% of Americans saw the video of Renee Good’s murder by ICE, and 45% say they support abolishing ICE. That number will only grow with yesterday’s execution-style killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti.

But as Kaivan tells us, this firmly accelerates our march towards a surveillance state. He writes in his piece: “Every viral video, live-streamed arrest or crowdsourced map expands the mass-surveillance landscape in the United States. Our phones become both a shield and a monitor. Protection merges with data production, and resistance begins to resemble a corollary tech-driven surveillance infrastructure: crafted by humans, often with good intentions, but also accessible to courts, law enforcement and the Big Tech oligarchy to boot.”

Make sure to follow Kaivan Shroff on Substack, and check out his new podcast here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices