Amazon and MGM are marketing Ring Nation, their upcoming reality TV show hosted by comedian and former NSA agent Wanda Sykes, as “a new twist on the popular clip show genre.” But over 40 different civil rights organizations are now speaking out against the program for being a dangerous piece of pro-surveillance corporate propaganda and are calling on the studios to cancel the show before it ever sees the light of day.
Today, Fight for the Future, MediaJustice, Action Center on Race and the Economy, and dozens of other civil rights groups affiliated with the Cancel Ring Nation campaign published an open letter addressed to MGM leadership warning them about “the dangerous precedent MGM is setting in normalizing and promoting Amazon’s harmful network of surveillance cameras.” The letter, addressed to MGM TV chairman Mark Burnett and MGM president of unscripted TV Barry Poznick, goes into detail about the dangers Ring cameras and the culture associated with them pose to vulnerable communities and argues that Ring Nation is just the latest piece of Amazon’s Ring-branded “surveillance network” being sold as entertainment.
