No Clear Reason
The announcement says that the company has “advocated that governments should put in place stronger regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology, and in recent days, Congress appears ready to take on this challenge. We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested”. The company does say that it will continue to give organizations looking for missing children and combatting human trafficking access to their software. What isn’t clear in this statement is whether the moratorium applies to the federal government too. And it also doesn’t say what the company is planning to do during or after the year. Will it try and improve its technology or will the company follow IBM and quit the game altogether?
Criticism
Justice In Policing Act
Kristen Clake, the president and executive director of the lawyers’ committee for civil rights under law, said that “[t]he Justice in Policing Act is historic and long overdue legislation that will put our country on a path to reform. This Act is responsive to many of the urgent demands being pressed for by our communities and by the people protesting for racial justice and equity across our nation”.
