International Troll Alert
Mr Musk. appears to be trolling the UK without any real understanding of how that economically damages his own, let alone national security in such a dangerous time. He seems to be taking to his new government role the same way he took to PayPal, Twitter and so many more. This week Elon stated publicly that the UK is a ‘Tyrannical Police State’ which was likely one of the most ironic statements I’ve heard in a very long time, but we will get to that.
Firstly, Mr.Musk doesn’t seem to have researched public camera ownership in the UK before making such a contemptible statement. Now we know a lot about CCTV on The Cyber Show and our right to privacy, our episode CCTV detailed the state of privacy in the UK so we did our homework, we also live here.
Ownership
If he had done his homework, he would have discovered that many of the cameras he encounters in the UK are not police cameras at all. In fact, the police don’t have access to the live or recorded footage for many publicly visible cameras, they simply don’t belong to them. Many cameras are traffic and ANPR cameras and they belong to the National Highways Agency. With a population of over 70 million on a small island, there are millions of vehicles travelling daily on a road network that’s spans around 700 miles from Scotland to the South Coast. The reason we are called NASCAR drivers by our US friends, is that we must be for our own safety. We embrace traffic cameras by and large as driving in the UK for 10 years means you’ve likely had a no-fault accident already, usually by someone breaking road rules. The traffic cameras do reduce RTCs and speeding and they have a positive impact.
Another distinct public camera owner is our national security services. The cameras are run by our government directly, such as those on public transport networks and in airports. They are not really used to track burglaries. These cameras are more tolerated, they make us feel safer in high target locations like the London Underground, but we often question who they keep us safe from. Just terror suspects or activists and protesters as well?
Now we get to police cameras and private ownership. Police cameras are big entities placed right inside high-crime areas, public parks, courts, drug alleys or even directly outside a house that has been previously raided. They are monitored for mostly violent crimes and for the surveillance of criminal activity, the footage is used in court and is usually a high enough quality for submission as evidence. The rest of the cameras are privately owned by businesses and individuals. There are so many because of the CCTV sales trick. Make people feel unsafe, so they can buy CCTV and feel safe again just like Honest Ron. These are mostly non-admissible in court due to low quality footage so are not even used by police in many cases. In today’s world, shops, café, bars need noticeable CCTV, to deter theft and relates to 14 years of austerity by our previous government. Many cameras are fake and many simply don’t work.
So, in summery the majority of the ‘police cameras’ are in fact not police cameras and fall into categories of traffic, private, state and police. Another stark fact is only a fraction of crime is tackled and processed in the UK currently, so it isn’t much of a police state at all. CCTV only works if there is a strong justice system and well-funded police force or it’s just grim film. We no longer have any of these in place due to lack of public spending, lack of prison spaces and low prosecution rates. Dare I detract and mention Brexit costs and pandemic fraud which have certainly been a major factor in high crime rates in the UK.
Human Rights
I’d also like to point out we have the Human Rights Act which was first drafted here, with the origins dating back 800 years (and is still visible today in the Magna Carta , a historic document). Within the act is Respect for your private and family life, home and correspondence and is legally enforceable, even for very small privacy cases. Our national security services and military are except from this and secretive of course, so how do we make sure our right is maintained? How can we be sure he isn’t correct?
Ancient Institutions
We have just started a new chapter, away from the direction the US is headed again. So how did the British public reach a consensus that differs from much of the western world in 2024? How did it starve off the social media mis/disinformation campaigns and change direction? Our ancient institutions we are so passionate about, uphold and collectively protect. This time the public were well informed and were able to detect mis/dis information in most cases.
Our universities, researchers, national banks, charities, journalists, legal systems, local councils, and religious leaders all contribute and are moastly, ancient. The same list of institutions on every dictator, communist and invaders hit list because of their ability to evidence misjustice, undermining the power of the immoral. The same list our previous government in the UK began to attack, fascism crept in damaging universities, the legal system, journalism, research and even making protest illegal, potentially using state powers to track complainers. Now that’s Fascist. However, it was our strongest institution which stopped it in its tracks and that’s our democratic system and our right to legal challenge.
It’s the same path the US has democratically chosen once more due to weaker institutions and lack of digital regulations that Mr.Trump , Mr.Musk and his MAGA team continue to weaken and attack. The very issue Mr. Musk raises about our tyrannical police state comes from the type of politicians he supports, although he seems to prefer the hard-right national village idiot Nigel Farage and the racist rhetoric of Reform UK.
The Irony
If you have not listened to our Watchers episode, I’ll summarise it but it is well worth tuning in right now for a better understanding. We covered two big cases of privacy violations against Tesla and Amazon products.
Guess who was CEO of Tesla at the time of the privacy violations? Yep, you guessed it Elon himself. Tesla were caught watching in car camera footage from over 20 cameras in and around a standard Tesla, mostly hidden and pointing right at the inside. It seems Tesla was a tyrannical voyeur with their private CCTV network. It seems when given the chance to break privacy and cybersecurity laws in multiple countries, they took it. What Elon might be suggesting is CCTV data is fine when they are on his servers, but not our police servers in the UK when he visits.
UK Privacy Issue
Living in the UK only feels remotely like a police state in London, the city with by far the highest crime rate, poverty and population, like any super-sized city. It is also our capital city, so it is a high target area for criminals. Most of the cameras I encounter, I completely understand their purpose and in at least 50% of those cases I do feel more secure. In several cases, I’m rightly outraged, for example the Facial Recognition (FR) police system is often described as increasing racism. We push back, we are well known for not accepting privacy violations we deem unacceptable and our legal system will catchup eventually. FR technology isn’t entirely legal in the UK at all, despite its use by police and private companies. We also publicly fund research in counter mass surveillance and our institutions regularly highlight immoral state behaviour, which is put to the acting government.
These are not the actions of a tyrannical state. So long as we continue to uphold the institutions our country is built on and avoid outside influence on our democratic process, we stand a good chance of not quite becoming one. I may not have said that 4 years ago, so already I see progress in the right direction.
Can we say that about the US Mr. Musk would like to see built, does a man who paid people to vote his way in a general election uphold the values of democracy or is it he who is a tyrant? Que Alanis Morissette.