The anti-facial recognition movement is a global effort advocating against the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) in public. Reasons cited include concerns about surveillance due to its gender and racial biases, threats to privacy, and disproportionate impacts on marginalized communities. Civil rights activists and researchers argue that FRT reinforces systemic discrimination, specifically towards visually racialized populations, as well as women and gender non-conforming individuals.Zalnieriute, M. (2024). Facial recognition surveillance and public space: protecting protest movements. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 39(1), 116–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2023.2295690 Additionally, this movement highlights concerns over mass surveillance, wrongful arrests, and the erosion of civil liberties.

Background on FRT Facial recognition technology has been evolving since the visual capacity of computers emerged in the mid-20th century. Since its inception, there have been growing concerns about violation of privacy in public spaces, and algorithmic biases leading to wrongful arrests of people specifically of ethnic racial backgrounds and ambiguous gender presentation. These surveillance systems have adopted recent artificial intelligence (AI) driven systems, amplifying its potential to do harm. Specifically when these AI driven systems are used as an assistive technology for law enforcement and public safety. Its increasing use as evidence to identify people who commit crime to aid in an effort to aid public safety has increased incidents of abuse and false identification.

Criminalization of public spaces

Activists are concerned that there has been a consistent pattern of facial recognition being deployed in areas that are largely popularized by black, indigenous, people of color, reinforcing systemic discrimination.Currie, Morgan, Jeremy Knox, and Callum McGregor, editors. Data Justice and the Right to the City. Edinburgh University Press, 2022. A study published in the Journal of Information, Communications in Society and Ethics demonstrates that facial recognition technology, as developed and applied in Western contexts, tends to reinforce existing racial inequalities in policing practices—such as stops, investigations, arrests, and incarceration—further exacerbates the harmful impacts of systemic racism on historically marginalized communities, particularly Black individuals. The study also suggests no implementation of an allegedly racism-free biometric technology is safe from the risk of racially discriminating, simply because each implementation leans against our society, which is affected by racism in many persisting ways.Bacchini, F., & Lorusso, L. (2019). Race, again: how face recognition technology reinforces racial discrimination. Journal of information, communication and ethics in society, 17(3), 321-335.

FRT making a heavy presence on communities of color, especially those who participate in social organizing around their communities, can inflict fear of rallying, protesting, community gatherings, and cultural events.

Global movements

Russia Roskomsvoboda, a non-governmental organization, focused on the field of digital rights protections and digital empowerment, launched a campaign named BanCam, calling for a moratorium on the government's mass use of facial recognition.Rodriguez, K. (2019, December 30). Activists Worldwide Face Off Against Face Recognition: 2019 Year in Review. Electronic Frontier Foundation. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/12/activists-worldwide-face-against-face-recognition-2019-year-review Some of their arguments also include concerns over non-consensual surveillance, abuse, and data leaks. They even argue that depending on race, gender, and age, there is up to a 35% chance of erroneous recognition.Campaign against facial recognition: Roskomsvoboda. Ban Cam. (n.d.). https://bancam.ru/en Organizers demand for the government to halt use of facial recognition until the effects are studied and the government adopts legal reinforcements to keep the protection of their data.Machado, H., & Silva, S. (2025). Navigating the Complex Landscape of Facial Recognition Technologies. In Ethical Assemblages of Artificial Intelligence: Controversies, Uncertainties, and Networks (pp. 15-72). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.

Argentina Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC), a civil society organization, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, works to promote and defend civil and human rights across Argentina and the larger Latin America, since its founding in 1995.Con Mi Cara No. ADC. (2023). https://conmicarano.adc.org.ar/ In 2017, law enforcement in Mendoza, Argentina, began using FRT in order to identify those with pending arrest warrants. With this technology, Mendoza police were able to identify more than 100 individuals, by actively using this technology in public spaces.Bizzotto, C. (2023, February 18). Reconocimiento facial: Hallaron a más de 100 personas con pedido de Captura. Diario El Sol Mendoza. https://www.elsol.com.ar/el-sol/reconocimiento-facial-hallaron-a-mas-de-100-personas-con-pedido-de-captura/ More notably, this technology was able to scan around 11,000 faces at popular spaces such as their Grape Harvest Festival and Malvinas Argentinian stadium. Police used 20 facial recognition kits that include a high resolution camera and a processor with an onboard database of wanted individuals. These practices were major concerns to ADC organizers and took action to file a lawsuit against the city of Buenos Aires, specifically targeting the constitutionality of Resolution 398/19. This resolution authorized the implementation of a facial recognition system linked to a database of individuals with outstanding arrest warrants.Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. (2019). Resolución 398/19. Ministerio de Justicia y Seguridad. https://boletinoficial.buenosaires.gob.ar/normativaba/norma/462506 Although the majority of facial recognition systems have been implemented in Argentina’s capital, ADC reported that, as of early 2021, the technology had also been introduced or tested in the provinces of Córdoba, Salta, and Mendoza, as well as in the county of Tigre in Buenos Aires Province.Caeiro, C. (2022). Regulating facial recognition in Latin America. Chatham House, November, 11. Plans for further deployment were also underway in the province of Santa Fe. The ADC argues that the resolution lacked adequate legal safeguards, transparency, and oversight creating the potential for abuse and violating fundamental rights such as privacy, freedom of expression, and due process, especially for already marginalized communities.

France La Quadrature du Net (LQDN), founded in 2008. This organization promotes and defends the fundamental freedoms in the digital world and fight against surveillance from both states and private companies.Marne. (2023). About Us. La Quadrature du Net. https://www.laquadrature.net/about/ LQDN called for a ban on the mass use of facial recognition to identify protesters. The French government has adopted several official orders that allow the identification of those participating in protest and public organizing by syncing its technology with wide databases. Its organizers also petitioned France’s highest administrative court to overturn Article R.40-26 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which authorizes the use of facial recognition technology to identify suspects during criminal investigations. LQDN argued that such use was not “strictly necessary,” as required by the French interpretation of Article 10 of the Law Enforcement Directive (LED). However, the court rejected the challenge, stating that the large volume of data in the TAJ database made automated facial recognition processing essential. This ruling contributes to the ongoing debate over how the LED’s necessity standard should be applied to biometric technologies.Christakis, T., & Lodie, A. (2022). The Conseil d’Etat Finds the Use of Facial Recognition by Law Enforcement Agencies to Support Criminal Investigations “Strictly Necessary” and Proportional. European Review of Digital Administration & Law, 3(1), 159-165.

United States The concept of "the right to appear" refers to the fundamental right of existing in public spaces without the fear of suppression.Catanzariti, B., & Currie, M. (2022, August 24). Chapter 12 facial recognition and the right to appear: Infrastructural challenges in ANTI-SURVEILLANCE resistance. De Gruyter. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781474492973-022/html FRT opponents argue that facial recognition technology challenges this right by enabling mass surveillance, disproportionately targeting marginalized communities, and putting them at risk for misidentification.In June 2020, there was an emergence of nationwide protests following the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, major tech companies responded to growing concerns about the role of facial recognition in policing. IBM announced a complete withdrawal from facial recognition technology, stating it would no longer develop, use, or sell such tools, nor support third-party vendors. Around the same time, Amazon and Microsoft both declared moratoriums on selling facial recognition systems to law enforcement agencies. However, shortly after these announcements, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) disclosed that Microsoft had previously attempted to sell facial recognition technology to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration between 2017 and 2019.Williams, D. P. (2020). Fitting the description: historical and sociotechnical elements of facial recognition and anti-black surveillance. Journal of Responsible Innovation, 7(sup1), 74–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/23299460.2020.1831365

Sexism in FRT Facial recognition technology has also been criticized for gender biases, particularly because studies have indicated that it misidentifies women at 18% higher rates than men. These errors stem from the way AI systems are trained, along with the databases used in their development. Studies show that FRT systems, including Amazon's Rekognition, misidentify women more often than men, with even greater inaccuracies for women of color. Team, L. D., & Shreya. (2021, May 5). Sexism in facial recognition technology. Medium. https://medium.com/berkman-klein-center/sexism-in-facial-recognition-technology-d5e547a6e7b

Racial biases