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Congress Introduces Legislation That Effectively Bans Law Enforcement Use of Facial Recognition Surveillance in the US
WASHINGTON
Today lawmakers in the House and Senate jointly introduced legislation that effectively bans law enforcement use of facial recognition in the United States. The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2020 is sponsored by Senators Markey and Merkley as well as Representatives Jayapal and Pressley. It would immediately stop Federal agencies in the US from using facial recognition technology, and would require local and state law enforcement agencies to enact a similar policy banning use of facial recognition in order to receive Federal grants through the Byrne grant program. There is no time limit on the ban--it would stop the use of the technology unless Congress passes a law to "un-ban" it.
The legislation comes just one day after Robert Williams, a Black man in Detroit who was falsely arrested in front of his family due to a racially biased facial recognition algorithm, told his story in the Washington Post.
Fight for the Future, the digital rights group behind BanFacialRecognition.com, a coalition of dozens of organizations calling for an outright ban on law enforcement use of facial recognition, issued the following statement, which can be attributed to Deputy Director Evan Greer (pronouns: she/her):
"Facial recognition is a uniquely dangerous form of surveillance. This is not just some Orwellian technology of the future--it's being used by law enforcement agencies across the country right now, and doing harm to communities right now. Facial recognition is the perfect technology for tyranny. It automates discriminatory policing and exacerbates existing injustices in our deeply racist criminal justice system. This legislation effectively bans law enforcement use of facial recognition in the United States. That's exactly what we need right now. We give this bill our full endorsement.
Congress should pass this bill as soon as possible. Republican lawmakers especially who have been speaking out about civil liberties and privacy in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis will expose themselves as hypocrites if they do not quickly endorse this legislation. Once this bill is passed, Congress should move quickly to pass legislation that also bans corporations, schools, and other private institutions from using facial recognition for surveillance purposes.
Facial recognition is like nuclear or biological weapons. It poses such a threat to the future of human society that any potential benefits are outweighed by the inevitable harms. This inherently oppressive technology cannot be reformed or regulated. It should be abolished."
Since last year, Fight for the Future has been leading a national campaign backed by dozens of other grassroots organizations calling for an outright ban on law enforcement and government use of facial recognition. In February, the group expanded its efforts to explicitly call for lawmakers to also ban private individuals, institutions, and corporations from using this technology in public places, for surveillance purposes, or without the subjects' knowledge and affirmative consent, such as unlocking a phone. Even seemingly innocuous uses of facial recognition, like speeding up lines or using your face as a form of payment, normalize the act of handing over sensitive biometric information and pose a serious threat to security and civil liberties. The group is also providing support for activists on the ground pushing for bans at the local level. Boston just became the largest city on the east coast to ban government use of facial recognition. Detroit City Council is expected to vote soon on whether to renew their police department's contract with a facial recognition vendor.
Fight for the Future worked with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and other artists to lead a successful campaign to keep facial recognition technology out of US music festivals and live concerts. More than 40 of the worlds' largest festivals including Coachella, Bonnaroo, and SXSW confirmed they won't use the tech at their events. The group then worked with Students for a Sensible Drug Policy to get more than 60 prominent colleges and universities to confirm they won't use facial recognition on campus. 150+ university faculty issued an open letter echoing student demands to ban the use of face surveillance on college campuses. Students across the country held a national day of action in March.
Fight for the Future is continuing to run campaigns in defense of basic human rights and civil liberties during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, the group launched TakeThisSeriously.org, a pledge calling on people to listen to public health officials, practice social distancing, and fight back against attempts by governments and corporations to exploit the crisis by expanding surveillance or cracking down on human rights. The group is also running high profile campaigns to stop the encryption-killing EARN IT act, oppose the reauthorization of FISA and USA PATRIOT ACT surveillance authorities, and end Amazon's 1,300+ Ring doorbell partnerships with police. They recently had a major victory pressuring Zoom to change course and offer end-to-end encryption to all users.
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
(508) 368-3026LATEST NEWS
'There Is Only One Majority in This Country, That's the Working Class,' Says Mamdani
"It's time we have a politics that puts them at the heart of what it is that we're pursuing and not as part of the appendix."
Apr 16, 2026
As he has done numerous times before, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday rejected the notion that democratic socialism has limited appeal outside of progressive urban centers by asserting that his worker-centered policies are aimed at uplifting the nation's biggest demographic cohort—working people and their families.
Mamdani appeared on "CBS Mornings" and was asked what grade he'd give himself after 100 days leading the world's most important city.
"You know, I'll always leave it to New Yorkers to give me the grade but I will say that I'm proud of what the team has accomplished over the 100 days," Mamdani told "CBS Mornings" hosts Gayle King and Vladimir Duthiers. "I mean, we saw $1.2 billion secured in a partnership with Gov. [Kathy] Hochul to deliver universal childcare in our city."
"We held bad landlords accountable for $32 millon, fixed 6,070 apartments," he added. "We filled 102,000 potholes and we did all of this while also returning $9.3 million back to workers and small businesses that have been ripped off by megacorporations."
Duthiers asked whether "a democratic socialist platform can translate into something that's electorally viable in a statewide election or a national election given that, according to Gallup, many older and rural voters still have issues with the term, with the label, socialist."
Mamdani replied: "You know, what I find is that New Yorkers ask me less about how I describe my politics and more about whether my politics includes them, and I think what we can see is that a democratic socialist politics is one that should be judged on its delivery, like any ideology. And what we're showing in this city is we can we can pursue the big things like universal childcare and do the pothole politics at the same time."
"I think that this is a politics that can flourish anywhere," he added, "because frankly there is only one majority in this country that's the working class and it's time we have a politics that puts them at the heart of what it is that we're pursuing and not as part of the appendix."
Turning to the illegal US-Israeli war of choice against Iran, Mamdani lamented that "we're talking about spending close to $30 billion to kill thousands of people an ocean away while we're told that we don't have even an ounce of that money to help working-class Americans across this country."
According to a Marist poll published earlier this month, 48% of New Yorkers approved of Mamdani's overall performance, while 30% disapproved and 23% are unsure. A majority of respondents—55%—"have either a very favorable or somewhat favorable view of the mayor, and 33% have either a somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion."
A majority of respondents also said the city is heading in the right direction under Mamdani, while nearly three-quarters believe the mayor is "working hard," and 58% "have a great deal or a good amount of trust in Mayor Mamdani to make decisions that are in the best interest of New York City."
Previous polling has also shown that Mamdani's economic policies are popular across the country.
Responding to Mamdani's "CBS Mornings" appearance, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shared its newly published "Majority Agenda," a “roadmap” to passing policies that most Americans see as major priorities to improve their lives.
"The Majority Agenda is a collection of policy briefs on important issues where Americans generally have broad agreement across the political landscape," CEPR explained. "The project organizes these reports into three main areas: good jobs, strong infrastructure, and fair play."
"We're not as divided as some media and politicians want us to believe," CEPR contended.
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'Time for Half Measures Is Over': Study Warns of Terrifying Atlantic Ocean Current Collapse
"We must avoid this collapse at all costs," said a leading current researcher, who warned that "the stability of the entire planet" is at stake.
Apr 16, 2026
The global climate crisis is causing a critical Atlantic Ocean current system to weaken much sooner than previously predicted, according to a study published on Thursday. If it stops, scientists say it could pose catastrophic consequences for Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is one of the most important current systems in the world for maintaining the delicate balance of the global climate. It helps to keep colder regions like Europe and the Arctic mild by moving warm water northward and pushes large amounts of carbon deep into the ocean, keeping it out of the atmosphere.
Scientists have feared AMOC's decline for some time. Previous studies have shown it to be at its weakest point in 1,600 years. But research published this month suggests that a collapse may come much sooner than anticipated.
One study, published Thursday in the journal Science Advances, used climate models and current data to predict the decline in the coming decades.
Researchers found that the system is on course to slow by more than 50% by the end of the century and could pass a significant tipping point by mid-century, at which point its decline would become irreversible.
"We found that the AMOC is declining faster than predicted by the average of all climate models," said lead researcher Valentin Portmann, of the Inria Research Center of Bordeaux South-West. "This means we are closer to a tipping point than previously thought.”
A major driver of its slowdown has been the rapid melting of Greenland's freshwater ice sheet into the Atlantic, which has diluted denser saltwater, making it harder to transfer northward.
He explained: “The more rapidly Greenland melts, the more freshwater floods the North Atlantic. This disrupts the sinking process, effectively applying the brakes to the entire system.”
This research followed another study published last week by scientists at the University of Miami, which found that AMOC has been weakening at four latitudes in the Atlantic.
Professor Stefan Rahmstorf, a leading AMOC researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who was not involved in either study, called it "an important and deeply concerning result" that "confirms that the ‘pessimistic’ climate models—those projecting a severe weakening of the AMOC by 2100—are the most accurate."
"The most dramatic and drastic climate changes we see in the last 100,000 years of Earth history have been when the AMOC switched to a different state," Rahmstorf explained.
A shutdown of the current system poses what Canadian climate activist and marine conservationist Paul Watson described as a "domino effect of climatic upheavals."
Scientists have projected that temperatures in northern Europe could plummet dramatically, with winters in London sometimes reaching below -20°C (-4°F) and those in Norway reaching -48°C (-54°F). It also threatens to dramatically shorten growing seasons, putting food security in peril for hundreds of millions of people.
Tropical storms in the North Atlantic would also become more severe. As the current slows, sea levels are expected to rise, and the greater temperature difference between cooling Europe and the warming tropics can fuel more intense hurricanes and increase the risk of flooding in major coastal cities.
"We must avoid this collapse at all costs," Rahmstorf said. "The stakes are too high; this isn’t just about Europe’s climate, but the stability of the entire planet."
Such a dramatic change in the flow of global heat could scramble temperature and rainfall patterns worldwide, putting some areas at greater risk of drought and disrupting the monsoon season that fuels agriculture in many regions.
It also risks becoming self-perpetuating, as the large amounts of carbon released from the ocean could further accelerate AMOC's collapse. Research published last week found that carbon emissions from the Southern Ocean alone could increase global temperature by about 0.2°C.
"The science is clear: The AMOC is teetering on the edge of collapse, and the window to act is closing," Watson said. "Yet global leaders remain paralyzed by short-term politics and denial."
The conclusion of the most recent United Nations climate summit, COP30, has been described as woefully insufficient to address the mounting climate emergency. The roadmap for action released by the host nation, Brazil, excluded any mention of the phrase "fossil fuels" after the conference was overrun by industry lobbyists.
"The time for half-measures is over," Watson said. "The choices we make in the next decade will determine whether future generations inherit a manageable climate or a world plunged into chaos."
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As Americans Struggle With Soaring Prices, Trump Says $4 Gas Is ‘Not Very High'
After brushing off Americans' concerns about high gas prices, the president posted a message on social media discussing the latest plans for his luxury ballroom.
Apr 16, 2026
President Donald Trump on Thursday brushed off Americans' concerns about paying $4 per gallon of gas, telling a group of reporters that this price is "not very high."
While speaking with journalists on the White House lawn, Trump was asked by a reported from ABC News how long Americans should expect to be dealing with high gas prices, which have soared since the president launched an unconstitutional war of choice with Iran more than six weeks ago.
"They're not very high," Trump said. "If you look at what they were supposed to be to get rid of a nuclear weapon, with the danger that entails, so the gas prices have come down very much over the last three or four days."
Q: How much longer will American continue to see these high gas prices?
TRUMP: Well, they're not very high
Q: $4 a gallon still
TRUMP: That's what ABC says, but the stock market is up. Everything is doing really well. pic.twitter.com/yIxHXKqXII
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 16, 2026
In fact, Trump-appointed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said under oath during congressional testimony that Iran's uranium enrichment program was "obliterated" by US airstrikes last year, and that there had been no effort by the Iranians no effor to rebuild their enrichment capability since.
Additionally, gas prices have not come down "very much" over the last four days. According to AAA, gas prices in the US currently average $4.09 per gallon, a slight decrease from the $4.16 they averaged the week prior.
After the reporter informed Trump that gas was still over $4 a gallon, he replied, "Well, that's what ABC says, but the fact is, if you look at the stock market, it's up. Everything's doing really well."
Shortly after Trump shrugged off concerns about high gas prices, he posted a message on Truth Social discussing the security features he wants to see in the luxury ballroom he's been planning to build on White House grounds.
Among other things, Trump said he wanted the ballroom to have "Bomb Shelters, a State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Installations, Structures, and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass."
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