By Rivera Sun
Image: Remix by Nonviolence News with photo by Will Freeman on Pexels
What the Flock? In the United States, people in 482 cities participated in the DeFlock National Week of Action against surveillance cameras. There are 132,000 ALPRs (license plate readers) across the United States; 120,000 of them are Flock cameras. Over 100 cities and towns have already cancelled Flock camera contracts, citing privacy issues, immigration surveillance, and abuses by law enforcement. Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office in Missouri just became the latest on the list, going even further by committing not to replace Flock with Axion cameras. With zines, petitions, scooter rides, and protests, people are opposing the technology, including in Central Iowa; Cincinnati and Shaker Heights, OH; Kalamazoo, MI; Atlanta, GA; Roanoke, VA, Renton, WA; and more. In San Diego, CA, a man dressed as Darth Vadar showed up to make a public comment, saying that ‘the emperor loves Flock cameras’ and that the devices are needed to ‘surveil and destroy the rebels’. Some protesters are also using a range of property destruction tactics (which we don’t generally include in the category of nonviolence) to spray foam or spray paint the camera lenses, knock the cameras off street posts, put strips of duck tape over them, and more. The National Week of Action has already had an impact. On Thursday, Aug 21, Flock announced it would be making some changes to its software to address some of the privacy concerns and the abuses of law enforcement. Activists say that’s not enough.
The frustration with invasive and abusive tech goes much further, spanning continents and companies. Around the world, people are demanding that the tech industry demonstrate higher standards of ethics, social responsibility, and accountability. 800+ journalists at USA Today – the nation’s largest newspaper chain – demanded the cancellation of a new deal with Palantir to collect reader data, citing privacy issues and journalistic integrity. Minnesotans are resisting Google’s hyperscale data centers – and they’re not the only ones. In Visakhapatnam, India, local residents are protesting immense, polluting, water-guzzling data centers as their area is eyed for the type of facilities being blocked in Europe and North America. International solidarity will be required to halt the outsourcing of harm and tech colonialism. It’s not just the tech itself that is sparking outrage; it’s also the way the tech companies operate, skirting the law, circumventing local democracy, and eroding residents’ rights. Reporters and activists are being tracked by mass surveillance systems. People are evicted from city council meetings for simply clapping. The first protester who was jailed for opposing AI, a schoolteacher who joined a sit-in, called upon OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta to ‘regain your humanity’.
From derailing climate progress to gutting academic standards, tech is impacting everyone’s lives, especially students. AI cheating – along with leaked papers and marking errors – have sparked a wave of exam protests from India to Mexico to Portugal. When used thoughtfully, though, tech can be a powerful tool for social change. In North Macedonia, Studentarija, an Instagram-based youth-led media outlet, has transformed student grievances that were sent to them as direct messages into the data-based knowledge needed to address systemic issues such as scholarships, applications, exams, transportation, and housing.
In other news, as the trials of the Minnesota 15 unfold, reports are coming to light that show the shocking levels of surveillance and infiltration used by ICE during their occupation of Minneapolis. Undercover ICE agents tried to entice Minneapolis activists into confrontational tactics and criminal activities. Operation Puppet Master infiltrated local groups, including Sunrise Movement, and tried to undermine their nonviolence commitment. The agents secretly recorded at churches, libraries, and schools. They got onto activist Signal group chats and monitored them. For many of these groups, their nonviolence commitment served as a protective measure, creating clear guidelines for group members and putting safety measures into place to prevent violent agents provocateurs from sabotaging the movement. “We put a lot of work into training de-escalation and safety leads at all of our protests,” said Sunrise’s Aru Shiney-Ajay. “I certainly think that that was a worthwhile investment, reading these things now.” ICE also infiltrated labor unions and subpoenaed finances and records, trying – and failing – to find evidence of ‘conspiracy’ charges. Lawyers are alarmed at what’s unfolding, warning that the federal government is trying to target even legal organizing work firmly covered by constitutional rights.
Anti-ICE organizing continues nationwide. A powerful organizing model is coming out of Atlanta, which is forming one of the more robust versions of Sanctuary Zones yet. In Arizona, a protest camp has sprung up with activists perched in a tree-sit to save a 200-year-old grandmother tree in the Border Wall construction zone. In Texas, border construction at Big Bend National Park has been temporarily halted after demonstrations. Local businesses also refused to serve federal contractors and the construction plans generated unusual bipartisan opposition from local sheriffs.
In more Nonviolence News around the world, people power saved the World Social Forum in Benin, countering authorities’ attempts to shut down the conference. In Peru, dozens of students risked losing their scholarships to launch a sit-in at the Ministry of Education against detrimental changes to educational policy. In Bangladesh, at least 10 female garment workers were injured by police while demonstrating for reinstatement after being fired for organizing against sexual harassment in the workplace. In Canada, a brand-new campaign called #ElbitOutOfCanada wracked up its first win, getting Apollo Microwaves to cut ties with the Israeli weapons makers. In Puerto Rico, antiwar mothers are standing up to the US’ attempts to reopen military bases and use them as a launch pad for military aggression in Latin America.
In the Nonviolence News Research Archive, you’ll find even more stories of nonviolence in action around the world. It’s been a high-activity week with lots of stories and articles. Major candy makers are starting to roll out versions of iconic sweets made without artificial dyes. Activists are running on the Colorado River and walking along the Columbia River to raise awareness about drought and pollution. A mosque built by a transgender man in Pakistan is challenging people’s concepts of faith, gender, and inclusion. You’ll find a set of stories about how marginalized communities are striving to protect their historic sites, including the Moses African Cemetery threatened by development in Betheseda, Maryland; the historic queer Jacob Riis Beach in Queens, New York; and the effort to reclaim San Francisco’s Compton’s Cafeteria, a trans landmark, from Geo Group and ICE.
Check out the 92 stories in our Nonviolence News Research Archive>>
When asked, 9 in 10 people in the United States say that extreme heat is affecting their lives. It’s disrupting sleep, ruining vacations, and raising electricity bills. The US broke 600 heat records in July 2026, but despite the evidence before their eyes, fewer people believe the climate crisis is real. The Trump administration’s denialism is sowing doubt, lowering the number of people who understand that the climate crisis is human-caused from 73% to 66%. But faced with obstinance at the federal level, there’s a growing movement to get states to pass Green Amendments for the right to clean air and water, and healthy ecosystems. Other environmental campaigns are taking bold measures, too. Corpus Christi, Texas, which narrowly skirted an extreme water crisis this summer, has collected 13,000 signatures on a petition to make chemical companies pay a hefty fee for the industrial water use that’s drying up their water sources. America’s public libraries, long praised for their role in providing critical social services along with books, are increasingly taking on another civic service: providing air conditioned shelter for people when temperatures skyrocket. Protesters in New York City were arrested while blocking the doors of the energy company Con Edison, calling for lower bills, less pollution, and greater city support for heat pumps and efficiency programs. In a bit of good news, a federal judge ordered the Pentagon to stop blocking wind power projects in the United States.
“Temperatures and solutions are rising at the exact same moment,” wrote climate activist Bill McKibben in a recent op-ed. And here’s a few examples of those rising solutions: Austria and France’s ban on short flights has worked to boost train transit and lower emissions. Latin America has 10,000 electric buses operating across 80 cities in 13 countries. A sisterhood of scuba divers in Indonesia are protecting coral reefs. The Duwamish Tribe regained stewardship of rematriated land in Seattle, cleaned up the hazardous waste zone, and built a community gathering space and greenhouse garden.
Nonviolent solutions like these give me hope. They’re practical, tangible, and already underway. Across issues and societies, they’re showing us what’s possible. Some other stories of nonviolent solutions that we ran across this week include a community-led transit project on the South Side of Chicago, traveling doctors in medical deserts in rural France, an effort to turn Canada’s shuttered churches into affordable housing, care worker co-ops offering dignifying solutions to the care crisis, and a gig workers union bringing together 800,000 drivers across multiple rideshare apps. (Perhaps they’ll be inspired by Australia’s landmark gig workers’ minimum pay rule.) Best of all, many of these nonviolent solutions are also the kind of parallel institutions that challenge authoritarians in lively and powerful ways. “By directly meeting the needs of the people,” writes Saul Levin and Samantha Markel, “parallel institutions expose government inadequacies and provide a vision for the future.”
We need that vision. And we need people like you to help build it.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
Rivera Sun is a change-maker, a cultural creative, a protest novelist, and an advocate for nonviolence and social justice. She is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, The Way Between and other novels. She is the editor of Nonviolence News. Her study guide to making change with nonviolent action is used by activist groups across the country. Her essays and writings are syndicated by Peace Voice, and have appeared in journals nationwide. Find out more about her here.
This reporting was sent out on August 22, 2026, by Rivera Sun.