Rashida Tlaib Calls Facial Recognition Technology ‘Racist’ as Detroiters Call for the City to Cease Use

US House Rep and “squad member” Rashida Tlaib took to Twitter today to decry the use of facial recognition technology, calling it “racist.”

She provided “proof” by linking to a study that said that “Almost 200 face recognition algorithms—a majority in the industry—had worse performance on nonwhite faces.”

Facial recognition technology is racist.

Just in case you need more proof.

Here is a study:https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/12/20/79/ai-face-recognition-racist-us-government-nist-study/ …

Just in case you need more proof.

Here is a study:https://t.co/dA2kh5dSlL

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) June 17, 2020

Earlier, she retweeted a Detroit watchdog group that responded to the City Council President criticizing a protester caravan by saying “And some would say that mass surveillance with facial recognition technology in a predominantly Black city is ‘totally disrespectful.'”

She provided stats saying that “35% of facial recognition errors happen when identifying dark skinned women, compared to 1% for white males with this flawed system.” She claimed that “It also feeds into a broken system focused on criminalization.”

35% of facial recognition errors happen when identifying dark skinned women, compared to 1% for white males with this flawed system. It also feeds into a broken system focused on criminalization. https://t.co/MqpBql2YXS

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) June 16, 2020

A local ABC7 news report yesterday said that “Detroit demonstrators” were “calling for city to cease use of facial recognition technology.” One person interviewed said that instead of spending the money on the technology, they could put it towards “schools or public housing.”

A 2019 report said that:

Violent crime dropped in Detroit last year but the city still ranked as the nation’s most violent, according to FBI crime data released Monday.

In 2018, 13,478 violent crimes were reported — murder, rape, assault and robbery — in the city compared with 13,796 in 2017, a 2% drop.

Detroit’s rate of 2,008 violent crimes per 100,000 people placed it highest among cities with more than 100,000 residents, followed by Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; and Baltimore.

In 2017, Detroit’s violent crime rate was the second highest of the nation’s big cities.

Murders in Detroit were down to 261 last year from 267 the previous year, according to the report. The city’s murder rate placed it fifth highest in the nation, below St. Louis; Baltimore; Jackson, Mississippi; and Birmingham, Alabama.