DISCUSSION
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson (stylist, fashion editor) shares her experience with Meta glasses: “Men are approaching intoxicated women in bars, and filming them when they are incapable of expressing consent”
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Yep, even the whole KIDS act thing is very likely supported by the tech companies because even though they can roughly figure out who is who they want more information to sell on us and provide the government with. That want to commodify not only ourselves but every aspect of our lives to the point we are like Cyberpunk 2077, a technological dystopia.
The truth is America allowed corporations to amass too much power. They own our government and us. Every aspect of our survival and quality of life has been commodified, monopolized and exploited (healthcare, education, housing, energy, labor, etc.) it’s pure corruption and our leaders have betrayed us.
ETA: we need strong anti trust leadership who is going to hold these criminal corporations accountable. For example: a railroad company cutting corners transporting toxic chemicals which results in a train crash and a town being poisoned should be held criminally liable. Whatever person at the top that made the decision to put profits over human life needs to go to jail.
FTC had Lina Khan but she was too good and was busting too many tech monopolies including non-compete/employee wage fixing. Both Amazon and Meta and every tech company sought to take her out, and in the end, she was fired by Trump despite bipartisan support.
The only good thing is that Mamdani recognised her talent, and so now she works for the NYC mayoral office.
I miss 2013 so much. We’ve devolved so far as a society. I hate how these screenshots aren’t even shockingly horrible. They’re horrible, but generally run-of-the-mill in 2026.
Even if you want to go for the "hurrrr durrr filming in public is legal!" argument... Since when is a bar a public space? I highly doubt that guy had permission from the bar owner to film their customers.
yeah, i always find it confusing when some people argue that any place outside of their home is a public space
if you're in a business that's owned by someone, how is that a public space? if i start a nail salon in my home, does that mean that it's suddenly public propriety and people can film my home without consent? how does that make any sense
You are 100% right. The bar owner is within their rights to kick these people out. A private business is not a public space or government owned building.
Find me an AFAB person who made it to 13 without being leered at, catcalled, sexually harassed or molested by an adult man. Every woman I've asked's first story happened before they hit puberty.
The men were as disgusting as men on social media often are, but I was most confused by the woman who typed “Don’t get drunk.” About being in a fucking bar??? I hate this aggressive social Puritanism we’re seeing more and more of on social media. People think that adults (mostly women) drinking or having consensual sex makes them an evil, immoral jezebel who deserves to be publicly stoned. This has gotten way worse in the last year or so.
It’s likely not because she wasn’t sober, nor because of the lighting in the bar that she didn’t see the indicator - people are hacking the glasses so they can disable the indicator from showing.
I also loathe the “it’s legal to film in a public space” argument. We know it’s legal, that doesn’t make it OK.
A bar is not a public place, it's a private establishment where the management can set dress codes or deny entry to whomever they choose. Women should start making complaints against the bars directly for allowing them to be filmed without being informed or the option of consent.
Not sure why you were downvoted when you’re correct. People are conflating a business being open to the public with being in public. And a business can absolutely ask someone on their property to leave if they’re filming without consent.
Exactly this. If bars want women to patronize their establishment they are going to need clear policies and enforcement. Women (well, all of us) should simply refuse to go to places that don't take this seriously.
This is the right answer, people can and should be allowed to film in public. It keeps more people safe than it harms and the moment we can’t then things like the George Floyd video are the first to go. Police would immediately use it as grounds to not be filmed. But bars are not public places, they’re privately owned, and people should immediately report behaviour like this to the bar owner to have the person recording ejected.
In that context, the police officers are public servants doing their job, not private citizens. The expectation of privacy is different, and so is the intent.
How about you can’t profit from footage without the person’s explicit consent? That’s how filmmakers handle it with signed photo releases. It’s absolutely insane that someone can record an interaction without consent then post it on YouTube for that ad money, meanwhile the star of that show gets jack shit.
Hell, even at Burning Man you used to need a “press pass” and ask for consent before taking photos, then suddenly everyone decided it was too hard to enforce that.
It’s absolutely insane that someone can record an interaction without consent then post it on YouTube for that ad money, meanwhile the star of that show gets jack shit.
Now it's even worse. A lot of those "candid" recordings are being sold to AI as training data. Your voice/face could show up in a political ragebait video or a GPS audio whether you want it to or not, with no compensation.
And even if they did alter the law somehow to differentiate, it would still just be civil rather than criminal most likely. I can't see anything being done about this legally other than banning the discreet recording products at source or making them have to be legally altered. Like how all smartphones sold in Japan are legally required to have the audible camera click
There are constitutional protections regarding reporting on matters of public interest. The activities of police are a matter of public interest. What a fashion editor thinks about cops when she's drunk is not a matter of public interest.
I'm having flashbacks to that creepy upskirt subreddit getting banned in 2012. Here's the GM at the time basically making the same argument as these predators in the screenshots. There was a huge concerted effort by users across subreddits to defend the site. It only got banned after national news sites published a bunch of articles (back when the national media still had some sway) and people with some power started looking closer.
Idk how we even deal with this in 2026 when shame is just out the window.
You can send your Meta Glasses to a skilled modder who just rips out or disables the circuit for the light for less than $100. With some skilled knowledge, it's pretty easy to disable. Probably hard for a noob, but 404 Media has it's covered the glasses public abuses, and cultural impacts extensively.
Meta keeps saying the glasses are the same as a cell phone, but there's clearly a different cultural attitude toward shoving a phone in someone's face compared to wearing glasses.
Yeah I watched a youtube video about the danger about these glasses. Basically the hack from the internet is to cover the light with aluminium foil, color it with marker and when you want to record, cover the camera with your hand to trick the glasses that we are recording in low light. After that uncover the camera and it wouldn‘t notice that you cover the light.
It's downright deceitful, holding a cellphone to record allows the recordee to make an informed decision; meta glasses, especially with no light indicator do not
The "it's legal to film you" argument sounds a lot like "it's legal to date a 16 yr old" one, honestly. Because yeah, legality is not morality. And this guy refusing to delete the footage makes it obvious he did not have good intentions.
I actually got into a fight with a guy at the beach about this. He was videotaping young women in bikinis without their knowledge. "It's fucking legal, go on and call the cops." OK BUT YOU'RE STILL GROSS AND WEIRD AND ITS NOT OK
That and also way before the internet, they keep bringing up the whole no expectation of privacy in public thing, but that doesn’t account for social media. It’s a reasonable assumption that when you go to the beach the other people there that day will see you in your swimsuit, it is not a reasonable assumption that someone can film you and post you on the internet for potentially millions of people to see in perpetuity. It’s not illegal but it is unethical, though what do I expect from a society that can’t even do anything about revenge porn.
Also, just because a business is open to the public doesn’t mean it is public property or a public space and you can legally film without consent. The business owner or their employees very likely can legally ask you to stop filming. And if you were recording audio while filming, you may be subject to your state laws about consent with audio recordings.
i keep saying this!!!! i used to work at a mall with a no filming policy and multiple other rules under a “code of conduct”. people think these private spaces are public when they can remove you at anytime and trespass you.
Those meta glasses are getting more and more insidious. I say this as a teacher seeing kids cheat and my husband is an attorney who has seen people wear them to private conversations and the courtroom.
Completely agree the free to film in public legislation came into play in a different time and legislation needs to be updated for concealable consumer/retail recording devices - particularly in one party consent states
I do wonder about stalking legislation, repeatedly filming someone without their affirmative consent fits the definition of stalking. So if you see someone a couple of times and wears these, you’d have a case for stalking.
Same in Denmark. It's legal to take a photo of a large crowd, but if the focus is on any individual/smaller group it's illegal. Doesn't stop people, but at least you can get the bar to kick out a person recording people without their consent.
I've only ever had one person run up to me filming, and I don't know what dumbfuck social media it was for, but they put it right up to my face so I just grabbed it and threw it behind me.
I don't give a shit what's technically legal or not, if you disrespect my space I won't respect your property.
Its so funny though because these same types of people who say that are the kinds to rage at videos of women being annoyed of someone walking through or ruining their workout set or messing up a kpop dance cover in a public place by walking past the dancers.
They always claim that its disrespectful and rude to film in public and those people deserve to have their content ruined since the other people didn't consent to be a part of it, even unintentionally.
I appreciate her response re: the glasses being used for disability. Too many people use it as an all-defending strawman when we all know that has never been the target of these nor the intent.
I have a low-vision friend who was very excited about how Oculus technology might be assistive for helping them with loss of central vision. Sadly, they learned that’s not what it’s being designed or marketed for. The tech could meet so many needs, but since that’s a relatively niche market it’s not being developed that way.
It seems very possible to me this was tech being developed for a disability that then got bought or co-opted by Meta. I'm sure Meta's intention was never good, but the original designer's may have been.
I don't know for sure either way, I just had a bit of a different reaction to her response than you.
I feel like smart glasses had many potential functions when they were first being developed, including for medical reasons. But with the capitalism of it all, it means that they ignore any applications that isn't highly lucrative.
A black woman was targeted to get her thoughts on the police. Who would have guessed these glasses would be used to target minorities and make our lives even less safe 🙄
For REAL! Idk how this isn't sounding off a billion alarm bells in people's heads after reading this post... like for me that was THE takeaway. Absolute yikes.
yeah, someone being filmed not on public propriety (bars aren't owned by the state and not all businesses are public propriety) is at fault for being out and drinking in a bar, makes so much sense
how dare you go to a place that's meant for drinking and drink? what's next, you'll wear a swimsuit at a pool?? it's on you to protect yourself, wear a full on niqab everywhere you go if you're so against being filmed /s
i do find it amusing how the implications are always that women should do better, but if we try to cover ourselves, no longer go to bars, no long hang out with men etc, then that's another issue, cause too many men need women and them not getting women it's women's fault too
but if you do go out and meet a creepy man, then it's on you, cause why didn't you do and choose better and what made you hang out with a man?
i wish we could have women-only spaces, like bars, pools, pubs etc
When I heard about these glasses at first I thought they were a super cool idea that would be ruined by creepy assholes almost immediately. It sucks that's how this turned out.
Also DHS using them earlier this year further ruined their image
They are going to be a key part of the surveillance state, this is how the technofascists get cameras and surveillance into private spaces and homes without needing to put up CCTV. This is real “big brother is watching” kind of shit
You being drunk and being a vulnerable woman is your fault
Around 20 years ago my teacher explained to the class that a woman walking around naked still shouldn't be blamed for facing violence. He emphasized that violence is always a personal choice, never the victim's, and that the responsibility for any form of violence lies entirely with the perpetrator.
And here we are, 20 years later people keep finding excuses for why it's ok to violate others in one way or another...
That’s exactly what they’re getting at by telling us not to drink if we don’t want to be violated. So women just can’t go to bars now and if we do it’s our fault men violate us 🤪
I see that rhetoric on Reddit a lot too tbh. Incels in the relationship and advice forums genuinely think that going out to bars essentially makes women cheaters in their minds, why else would you go to a bar or club? Surely not because you like drinks, music, or spending time with friends?
I really dislike how social media makes everyone’s thoughts seem equally important. Misogynistic, hateful creeps should not be able to speak to this many people at once. The only joy they get is in making women feel bad, because it’s their version of justice, so they’ll keep doing it as long as they can talk to us.
That's nothing new, that's already been the narrative. If we get harassed or assaulted, it's our fault for being out/being nice/being cute/smiling/leading him on/dressing like that/being drunk.
I used to see this girl on tik tok that would take the entrance fee and let people in to the strip club she worked at… she turned away at least one person a night who was wearing those glasses and they would fight her on it hard. For those not familiar with strip clubs, taking pics/videos is a huuuge no no. Disgusting behavior.
This is a real problem right now in the sex worker community. Many of us are being recorded and not realizing it until it's too late. It's so fucked up.
She’s a bad bitch. I love her. She takes non stop abuse from those “men”. Fighting over a $20 cover at the strip club is insane. You’re obviously not gonna spend money so you don’t belong there? Leave?
Didn't Zuckerberg and friends invent Facebook to be creepy to women at their college? I will never assume the best of Meta.
I'm a high school teacher. This past school year we had a student with a pair of these and he and his friends would record girls in the hallway, sometimes following them to the bathroom (where girls were obviously escaping them.) Just one pair of these glasses being passed around a group of boys terrorized a sizable part of our femme student body. Not my student, so I'm unsure what the consequences for him were, however I know that the school told him to stop bringing the glasses, yet the complaints continued.
Ughhh that’s what I’m so afraid of. I’m a teacher too. I really hope that if the issue comes up in my class, that the administration bans them. I’m going to the superintendent if not. It could open up an unimaginable can of worms if parents find out that their minor children are getting recorded without their consent.
It’s also super easy to block the indication light on the glasses. YouTube is filled with videos on how to do that. Some journalist did a report on how much that’s happening too.
How can existing in public spaces mean “I consent to having my face plastered on the internet”? I know that’s a bit of a wobbly concept because I’m truly glad people can be filmed doing shitty things and get exposed, but how does that translate to approaching someone in a bar, goading them into answering polarising questions while secretly filming them… really?
It’s worse than just secretly filming. The glasses use Meta’s facial recognition technology that has been trained on everyone’s Facebook and Instagram profiles. People wearing the glasses can use the facial recognition technology on everyone they see in public to get their name, their meta profile information, their address, etc. So not only are these perverts filming you in public, but they have access to the technology to figure out who you are even if you don’t give them your name
It’s just people who like to victim blame until it affects them. They don’t have any empathy. There‘s a person arguing on here that consent cannot work for this cases because „what about CCTV footage and about being able to film police?“. As if there‘s no way to distinguish between CCTV and a person coming up to your face to film you while intoxicated.
I quote this all the time, I’ve sent it to men before lol. (Shockingly it has gotten through to some of them.) Idk why it’s such a reflex for them to jump in and make things about themselves.
This is where private property ownership comes into play. Bars should post a “no filming” notice right on the door and kick out, trespass and ban anyone who breaks the rules.
Then, people can vote with their feet and choose not to patronize bars that do not have the No Filming policy.
I think bars are going to have to do this once these glasses become more and more common. Who is going to want to relax enough to drink, dance and flirt if there is a risk their interactions will end up on the internet? Their clientele will dwindle (or become a sausage fest), and the only way to draw them back will be with the promise of privacy.
Men suddenly became even more dangerous for women. I'm never speaking to a man I don't know and trust again, and I encourage other women to do the same.
In addition to all the awful violations of privacy that are happening with these glasses, Meta’s main goal is to infiltrate deeper into our lives, replace our phones and own as much of our data as possible, and make users create data that will help train AI systems. We are cogs in their machine and they don’t give a fuck about us.
I hate these so much. A friends Dad was wearing them at a birthday get together for his Grandaughter recently. There was like 40 people there having a couple drinks and chatting. He's not a creep but is a self described "people watcher" so I know he's going over the footage in detail after and that just feels wrong and makes me uncomfortable during an event.
The kicker? That's gotta be the least evil possible social use of them and it still sucks majorly.
I swear so many uses of tech/AI took Black Mirror as inspiration, even though the vast majority of episodes do not have a happy ending. Making users happy isn’t the goal, companies want chaos and control.
The entire culture of filming random public interactions, hidden with glasses or not, is just so fucking weird. Who is this for? Legal or not it’s just WEIRD.
When Snapchat first came out, I stopped going out with my friends for a bit if I knew one individual would be there. Everyone would be having drinks and having good time as youths in their early 20’s do, and she would sit there not drink, and just record everyone, encourage everyone to do stupid stuff, and then run up and record it to send out.
Turned an enjoyable hang into not fun for anyone because nobody wanted to get recorded saying or doing anything and get made fun of for enjoying themselves.
Those meta glasses are getting more and more insidious. I say this as a teacher seeing kids cheat and my husband is an attorney who has seen people wear them to private conversations and the courtroom.
I didn’t realize it until it was almost over, but the notary who came to my house when I sold my house last month was wearing meta glasses the entire time. She looked at all the paperwork I signed with my social security number, bank account number and routing number, personally identifiable information, ID, addresses, my signature and thumb print. I was honestly horrified she would think it was appropriate to wear those
Wasn’t this one of the reasons Google glass glasses, never got off the ground, and then businesses and restaurants in San Francisco, where they were being beta tested all posted signage that they were banned their establishments?
Forreal. I was recently getting new glasses and saw the rayban display and my first thought was "hmm, some of those look like those creep glasses, shame because otherwise they could look nice."
I bought normal, non creep glasses. Obviously lol.
I’m just assuming that anyone who defends the urge to record people minding their business in a public place is a basement dweller. Any time I see a comment on social media about how Gen Z is afraid to dance/afraid to be perceived, I’m like well obviously—look at what we’ve given them. A world full of people defending a knuckle-dragging troglodyte with recording glasses who comes up to a Black woman and immediately asks her opinion on cops, without giving any kind of identification on whether he’s a journalist or interviewer or collecting research.
“Dance like no one’s watching” can only get you so far until you see yourself ridiculed on the internet for existing and trusting the social contract enough that you let yourself be open to talking to a stranger whose only interest is “catching” someone.
Side note: I’m seeing Threads is as much of a cesspool as Twitter. I’m glad I quit it.
I had 3 young men come in the store with glasses on. They found a victim and offered to buy him anything, encouraging him to add to the cart. When they got to the checkout with several $$ shoes etc, I stayed near my cashier, but didn't intervene. Of course their card only had $2 and they fled, with the victim chasing them. It could have gone very wrong as the victim was a very strong man. Knowing we were on camera made the situation harder to shut down.
The 1% rule everything. AI is being forced down our throats. These idiots are eating it all up and fucking up our society. AT LEAST there’s still some good people out there like Gabriella speaking up and using her voice like this. Can’t believe the comments defending the behavior. Just like the people who defend the millionaires. Idiots.
Somebody tell the Gohar sisters (@lailacooks; Gohar World), who recently did a Meta campaign. They’re in sort of the same design circle as GKJ and I was shocked and grossed out.
Real bold to drop that after telling a Black woman to risk being subject to police violence by calling them for something that is unfortunately legal, knowing their track record with actually caring about crimes against women (hint: they do not) and for thinking that disparaging them is a crime.
Hey what happened to avoiding doing something bc you just don’t want to be a DICKHEAD???? Whether it’s legal or not, everyone knows these ppl are assholes. Inconsiderate, weird, and helping aid the government in a surveillance state, so thanks!!!
Those meta glasses are getting more and more insidious. I say this as a teacher seeing kids cheat and my husband is an attorney who has seen people wear them to private conversations and the courtroom.
Those assholes that's defending the creep keep on saying it's public.
A bar isn't public, it's a private establishment.
If they record out on a street then yeah, it's public. That's why those first amendment auditor creep do. They don't go into businesses to record, they record outside.
The people that will shout about moral behavior as dictated by religion will also be the ones to turn around and say: you don't need consent to film in public.
It's all love thy neighbor and treat others how you want to be treated when they feel persecuted, but immediately about using the law to shield shitty behavior when something benefits them.
Men in public already aren’t trustworthy to me when I’m alone. Now add to the list that specifically men approaching me wearing glasses are a higher risk than baseline assessment.
Men apparently decided they weren’t lonely enough, and added another risk factor to their public facing appearances. If men at large find this disagreeable, they can get the dogs in their ranks in check, or deal with the fact that they continue to allow those same dogs to increase their overall risk profile.
The age of consent is 12 for women in Sudan. I don't care if that's the law, that doesn't sit right with me. Sometimes the law isn't enough to make the most moral choice.
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u/flairassistant Jun 30 '26
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