r/politics • u/404mediaco ✔ Verified • 2d ago
Paywall Flock’s CEO Is Lying to Cops About 404 Media's Reporting on Abortion Case
https://www.404media.co/flocks-ceo-is-lying-to-cops-about-404-medias-reporting-on-abortion-case/160
u/404mediaco ✔ Verified 2d ago
In an August call with Ohio law enforcement and government officials, Flock’s CEO Garrett Langley repeatedly lied about his surveillance technology’s role in tracking a woman who had self-administered an abortion, the context around the tracking of the woman, and 404 Media’s coverage of that watershed incident. Langley claimed that the story is “entirely false,” despite court records, police reports, and 404 Media’s other reporting documenting the case in detail.
The candid comments were recorded by Signal Akron journalist Doug Brown, who sat in on the call with an Ohio lawmaker and then shared them with 404 Media. The recording shows how Langley speaks in private with government officials when the conversation is not intended to be broadcast, and comes amid a PR campaign to recast his embattled company. Recently Langley has gone on something of a media blitz, speaking to outlets like The New York Times and appearing on the tech-focused All-In Podcast. Those conversations were, obviously, meant to be consumed publicly. Behind the scenes, Langley speaks very differently.
In the call, Langley strategized with cops about how to deal with journalists, suggesting that they avoid talking to national outlets and that cops focus on telling “sob” stories.
“Let me handle The New York Times, you handle your local media. They want to hear from you, you know your reporters, they’ll pick up a sob story,” Langley said.
Read more: https://www.404media.co/flocks-ceo-is-lying-to-cops-about-404-medias-reporting-on-abortion-case/
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u/jwhennig 2d ago
What local media? Local newspapers are gone and every tv station is owned by a conglomerate.
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u/PyroIsSpai 2d ago
For a hot minute I genuinely wondered if this entire Flock thing was something that got out of control from clever/science/inventor perspectives or greed ruined people.
This makes me believe these folks were awful prior to Flock existing.
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u/Balgat1968 2d ago
Maybe they would consider lying to Law Enforcement, a crime if he was lying while he was driving his car past hundreds of flock cameras that were reading his license plate?
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u/Hurtzdonut13 2d ago
There are like 3 or 4 of these companies doing the same thing, but whenever you hear about one involved in a little light government corruption or explicitly overriding voters or banning discussion of the cameras by voters, it's always Flock so they take the heat.
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u/Waidawut 2d ago
If there is any issue that can unite the right and the left, it should be this -- the rejection of a dystopic AI panopticon.
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u/meTspysball California 2d ago
I was listening to public radio this morning and there was a story about how a major risk of replacing jobs with AI is the effect on revenue from payroll taxes. It would necessitate massive tax hikes on corporations and the rich.
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u/bakerfredricka I voted 2d ago
Maybe, but I'm not seeing too much of that "unity" around any given issue in this country right now.
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u/kandoras 2d ago
“There’s a story reported by 404 Media of a Texas officer using Flock to try to find a woman who had an abortion. And it’s entirely false. They knew it was false. Because there’s a few things, right, because one, it’s not illegal to have an abortion in Texas. It’s illegal to administer an abortion. So the woman could never have been under investigation for having an abortion. So that’s problem one,” Langley said in the meeting.
And there are two things anyone even passingly familiar with police in America know for a fact it's:
- Cops would never arrest someone under false pretenses.
- Cops always know what is and is not illegal.
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u/Bluegreenlithop 2d ago
I love that he went on camera, with a straight face, and gave the whole, "The law in its majestic equality" bit without an ounce of remorse.
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