Hong Kong protest heat up; protestors use laser pointers to avoid facial recognition
Posted by Catherine Reed / August 12, 2019The Hong Kong protestors have carried on their protests against the Chinese authoritarian regime, drawing the ire of police and Beijing. On Sunday, police fired tear gas into an occupied subway. Police have accused the protestors of using gasoline bombs.
The protestors claims that they’re fighting against authoritarianism is bolstered by one of the key weapons: laser pointers. The laser pointers do a number of things. When shined in the face of police officers, they deter them, for example. But much more importantly, the laser pointers scramble cameras and, as a result, prevent photographs and (much more importantly) deter the use of facial recognition software. Such a weapon will halt Beijing’s use of technology to control its population.
Last week, protestors, all clad in black, have occupied Hong Kong’s international airport. The protestors plan to occupy the airport until Sunday as a protest against Chinese authoritarian government. They handed out pamphlets that read, “You’ve arrived in a broken, torn-apart city, not the one you have once pictured. Yet for this Hong Kong, we fight. We shall never surrender.”
Protests began earlier this summer when China wanted the ability to extradite from Hong Kong to mainland China. Those plans were quickly paused, but the protests continued. Protestors were no longer concerned with the extradition from Hong Kong––instead, they were demanding wider democratic reforms.
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