When a protester was caught on video in January at a New York rally against Israel, only her eyes were visible between a mask and headscarf. Days later, photos of her entire face, along with her name and employer, were online. “Months of them hiding their faces went down the drain!” a technology company boasted, claiming its facial-recognition tool had identified the woman despite the coverings. The same software was used to review images taken during pro-Palestinian marches at colleges. A right-wing Jewish group said some people identified with the tool were on a list of names it submitted to President Trump’s administration, urging that they be deported in accordance with his call for the expulsion of foreign students who participated in “pro-jihadist” protests. The push to identify masked protesters using facial recognition and turn them in is blurring the line between public law enforcement and private groups, the Associated Press reports. The efforts have stirred anxiety among foreign students worried that activism could jeopardize their legal status.
“It’s a very concerning practice. We don’t know who these individuals are or what they’re doing with this information,” said Abed Ayoub of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. “Essentially the administration is outsourcing surveillance.” Concern about the pursuit of activists has risen since the March 8 arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student of Palestinian descent who helped lead demonstrations against Israel’s conduct of the war. “Now they’re using tools of the state to actually go after people,” said a Columbia graduate student from South Asia who has been active in protests. Ayoub is concerned that groups bent on exposing pro-Palestinian activists will make mistakes and single out students who did nothing wrong. Some groups pushing for deportations say their focus is on students whose actions go beyond marching in protests, to those taking over campus buildings and inciting violence against Jewish students. “If you’re here, right, on a student visa causing civil unrest ... assaulting people on the streets, chanting for people’s death, why the heck did you come to this country?” said Eliyahu Hawila, a software engineer who built the tool to identify masked protesters and outed the woman at the January rally.
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