Internet Bullies Ring Doorbell Into Canceling Surveillance State After Super Bowl Commercial Backlash
Someone at Ring was paying attention to the naysayers.
Ladies and gentlemen, bullying has once again worked on the internet.
By now, you've all seen the Ring Doorbell company's disastrous Super Bowl commercial involving finding lost dogs by turning everyone's doorbell camera into 24-hour CCTV devices.
If not, here it is, again, in all its glory.
The ad was nearly universally reviled – which is a feat in and of itself to get people to agree on something on the internet – and it may go down as one of the worst Super Bowl commercials of all time.
Someone at Ring was paying attention to the naysayers, however, because the company announced that they would be discontinuing their state surveillance program before it even had the chance to fully get off the ground.
The tech they would have used in their "Search Party" project is the same that is used in police surveillance. But they definitely wouldn't have weaponized that against law-abiding U.S. citizens at all, right?
Anyway, the real story here is that the internet has once again bullied a massive corporation into bending the knee and doing away with something that is universally unpopular.
We all saw it happen in real time this past summer with the NBA Finals, where social media users bullied the Association into putting the Larry O'Brien Trophy graphic onto the court, then bullying them AGAIN when the graphic wasn't up to their standards.
This is just the latest bit of proof that if enough people band together for a common cause, you can usually get your desired outcome.
Or, at least, it would appear that way. Because some X users aren't so convinced Ring is being truthful here.
Ah, a conspiracy theory!
Hey, I'm always down for a good tinfoil hat session.
I definitely agree with that last person, they will absolutely continue this program and then not tell anyone.
Then, 15 years later, we will read all about it in some declassified government documents.
Always remember, conspiracy theorists are never wrong, they're just early.
Anyway, good luck with your "lost dog hunt," Ring!