“Ring Doorbell” by slgckgc is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

MediaJustice and Fight for the Future are leading the campaign to push MGM to cancel the new series Ring Nation, set to premiere on Monday, September 26 on Amazon Prime. The campaign, joined by 40 activist groups, is protesting bad tech behavior, the celebration of the police state, and the ongoing harms of surveillance culture, especially on Black and Brown people. Myaisha Hayes, the campaigns strategies director at MediaJustice puts it bluntly: MediaJustice and their partners “will not stand for a series that mocks and markets the policing of Black and Brown people.”

The “Cancel Ring Nation” petition argues that while Ring Nation looks like a happy, funny, viral blooper show, it’s anything but that. Ring technology is a set of surveillance apparatuses owned by Amazon and happens to partner with over 2,000 local police departments across the United States. Second, the associated Neighbors app hasn’t really stopped crime, but rather increased fear and paranoia. Third, Ring Nation turns our right to privacy into abusive entertainment fodder. Each of these issues raise red flags.

The monopolization of data technologies is not good for consumers

Amazon is an unprecedented conglomeration and mega store. The company doesn’t just sell products, it owns several data capturing technologies like Ring and Roomba. These products capture the data to your identity, your space, and your habits. Amazon is a data reseller and turns your personal information into targeted advertisements.

Ring is one of the most insidious of these data technologies. The Ring technology was originally just a smart doorbell, but in Bezos’ hands has become an integral part of people’s surveillance tendencies. Why have just a doorbell when you can have cameras everywhere! These cameras detect motion, capture video and audio and send alerts directly to your phone.

Like the paranoia of a forgotten oven or iron being left on, the constant alerts to frogs, foxes, and FedEx delivery people cause users to become hyper-aware of their property. The minor details of everyday life become scrutinized which turns our attention into fear.

Surveillance unjustly targets Black and Brown civilians

But to make matters worse, the policing of the public body through the Neighbors app has increased racism, paranoia, and self-policing. It’s reminiscent of the unconstitutional “Stop-and-Frisk” policy of the NYPD. The crimes were not reduced, but the profiling on Black and Brown people increased substantially. Now, the Neighbors app, working with Ring data, makes everyone think they’re a cop.

The brutal daytime murder of Ahmaud Arbery showed that Black people may be targeted for being Black. While on a jog, Arbery was seen looking into a construction site before the murderers chased him down and shot him point-blank in the road. Violent vigilanteism led by racial profiling could cause more harm than good. Ring empowers citizens to act as vigilantes, reporting neighbors and innocent people.

The right to privacy is being infringed upon by the state

While smart technologies are becoming quite ubiquitous, Ring has gone a step further to partner with local police departments. The issue here is how the government uses our privacy for their own means. The Fourth Amendment states in whole:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Aside from the 231-year debate around the word “unreasonable,” the Fourth Amendment is what protects our right to privacy. The Ring camera captures you regardless of whether you are on private or public property, only to be contextualized by the owner of the property or the police. Amazon is a private company with private data, but this summer, it admit to giving police Ring data without a warrant or consent.

The normalization of the corporate surveillance state

As I’ve written previously, Ring Nation is perfect American television. Over thirty years after America’s Funniest Videos introduced us to the voyeur of the viral video, it seems as though Ring Nation is the unfortunate perfect update for our dystopian era. The show represents how far American culture has devolved and it also displays an unhealthy evolution of the paranoid American mind.

The open letter sums up the claims well:

Ring Nation attempts to put a happy face on a dangerous product. Not only will MGM’s Ring Nation further normalize harmful neighborhood surveillance, it will deepen the pockets of a corporation that profits from the criminalization of communities of color and surveilling the whereabouts and actions of millions. Ring Nation is an advertisement for a bleak vision of the future, in which private megacorporations surveil our every move, sell us out to law enforcement, and profit off racism and hatred. Does MGM endorse this future?

Keep in mind MGM is owned by Amazon and chaired by Mark Burnett. Burnett used television to revitalize Donald Trump and helped create the rightward lurch in the US. With Ring Nation, Burnett hopes to turn corporate surveillance into entertainment. Further, the production company behind Ring Nation is Big Fish Entertainment (owned by MGM) which formerly produced the controversial Live PD on A&E — now called On Patrol: Live.

By petitioning for the cancellation of Ring Nation, the activist groups aren’t just interested in keeping a controversial television show off air, they’re also against the idea that one of the biggest corporations in the world can create entertainment with their own technologies, produce using their own production companies, and celebrate the perpetuation of the inequity of the world. It seems like a campaign more people should be interested in.