To mask or not to mask: As Trump faces flak for anti-mask stance, DHS fears coverings pose security threat
Which is more important: safety or security? While on the one hand, the Donald Trump administration is facing flak for not encouraging the wearing of face masks amid spiking cases of coronavirus, it has also come to face a potential security challenge created from sporting the face gear. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reportedly expressed worry that face coverings will hamper the law enforcement agencies’ use of facial recognition technology.
The Intercept came up with a report that speaks about a bulletin drafted by the DHS. It discusses the effects of the vast use of face coverings in correspondence with other federal agencies, including the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“A Homeland Security intelligence note dated May 22 expresses this law enforcement anxiety, as public health wisdom clashes with the prerogatives of local and federal police who increasingly rely on artificial intelligence tools. The bulletin, drafted by the DHS Intelligence Enterprise Counterterrorism Mission Center in conjunction with a variety of other agencies, including Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 'examines the potential impacts that widespread use of protective masks could have on security operations that incorporate face recognition systems — such as video cameras, image processing hardware and software, and image recognition algorithms — to monitor public spaces during the ongoing Covid-19 public health emergency and in the months after the pandemic subsides',” the report said.
The bulletin was received through a trove of police documents leaked in the ‘BlueLeaks’ hack on the law-enforcing bodies. It warned that face coverings could be used by the extremists to evade facial recognition technology though added that there is still no such threat. “[There is] no specific information that violent extremists or other criminals in the United States are using protective face coverings to conduct attacks,” the document says.
Facial recognition technology has risen to prominence among law enforcement in the US and around the world as a tool to identify and track suspects with the help of companies like Amazon and IBM who design the sophisticated AI software. It has also been put to use in recent months to track protesters against police brutality and supporters of the Black Lives Matter Movement in cities like San Diego.
Trump, meanwhile, stands firm against wearing masks
While his government was perceiving security threats because of the use of masks that can conceal threatening faces, President Trump recently reiterated his stand of not supporting wearing of masks. In an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, which will be broadcast this weekend, the 74-year-old commander-in-chief said he was against requiring all Americans to sport the face gear to combat the spread of the pandemic because he wants “people to have a certain freedom." The Covid-19 has so far affected more than 3.6 million people and killed over 139,000.
The president, who personally refuses to wear a mask in public (he wore it for the first time only on July 11), said this after the veteran journalist asked him about issuing a nationwide facial covering mandate for all Americans. “I don’t believe in that, no,” he said. Trump also dismissed the CDC’s (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention) advice that if all the Americans wore masks, the virus’s spread could be contained in a matter of time.
“I don't agree with the statement that if everybody wear a mask, everything could disappear,” he said, besides defending his decision citing Dr Anthony Fauci and US Surgeon General Jerome Adams to say that they also advised against wearing masks. "Everybody was saying don't wear a mask. All of a sudden, everybody's got to wear mask, and as you know, masks cause problems too,” the president added.
It needs to be mentioned here that the Trump administration has been found to be divided over the idea of wearing masks from the beginning and Fauci, a top infectious-diseases expert, also admitted that conflicting advice that was given during the early stage of the pandemic was to blame for the debate on whether people should wear masks or not.