Amid viral misinformation, Massive Attack clarifies their act is a critique of government surveillance, not an example of it.
In a sharp rebuttal to what they call “inaccuracies and outright lies,” the iconic band Massive Attack has forcefully denied using live facial recognition technology at their concerts, clarifying that a satirical visual effect was widely misinterpreted.
The controversy began when online reports and AI-generated social media accounts claimed the band was scanning audiences and storing personal data.
In a statement titled “It Isn’t What It Isn’t,” the group condemned the spread of false information, noting that “nobody and nothing bothered to factcheck.”
They explained that their show employs a simple, live-only face-detection effect combined with a completely fictional, randomly assigned database for artistic provocation.
It was stressed that “no Massive Attack live show has ever recorded or stored personal data” and that accessing real public databases across countries would be impossible for them.’
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The band used the opportunity to pivot the conversation to their actual message: a critique of the UK government’s expansive use of public facial recognition, which they state operates without specific legislation to regulate police use of the systems.
The irony, they noted, was that their political satire on “surveillance capitalism” was itself mistaken for the very thing it was criticising.
