INSIDIOUS

Russian Police Using Facial Recognition to Detain Protesters: Amnesty

Attendees of an April 21 protest of Alexei Navalny’s jailing are being identified and arrested using the software, Amnesty said.

Russian police are identifying activists and journalists with facial recognition software and detaining them, according to Amnesty International. Mass demonstrations have swept the country in recent weeks in response to the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. In recent days, according to the human rights group, Russian law enforcement has raided the homes of people who participated in or even simply reported on an April 21 rally. Some were detained in jail, some summoned to court for hearings. “Previously the protesters’ main risk was being beaten and arbitrarily detained by police at a rally,” said Natalia Zviagina, director of Amnesty’s Moscow office. “As of now, avoiding this fate does not mean that you can feel safe—the repressive state knows who you are and can come for you at any point. The risk of attempting to exercise your right to freedom of peaceful assembly has never been so high in Russia.”