Trump’s protest threats raise surveillance alarms around his military parade
President Donald Trump's warning that protesters of Saturday's US military parade in Washington, DC, will be met with "very heavy force" threatens to chill speech and underscores the need for protesters to take precautions around digital surveillance, privacy advocates tell The Verge.
In remarks from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump did not distinguish between peaceful and non-peaceful protesters. "For those people who want to protest, they're going to be met with very big force," Trump said. (Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later said, "Of course, the president supports peaceful protests. What a stupid question.") "No Kings" protests are set to take place in many cities across the country, but organizers specifically excluded DC from their plans to draw attention away from the parade, which also coincides with Trump's 79th birthday.
It's impossible to predict with certainty whether surveillance tools - like facial recognition for identifying people in crowds, automatic license plate readers that track vehicles entering certain areas, cell site simulators that collect information on mobile phones, or geofence warrants that require tech companies to hand over information on al …