Police use face recognition software as India protests intensify

Police in the Indian capital have started feeding footage of ongoing protests to the software to filter out 'habitual protesters' and 'rowdy elements'. — AFP

Indian police have started using facial-recognition software to screen large crowds as protests over a new religion-based citizenship law intensify, the Indian Express newspaper reported, citing people it didn’t identify.

The software, originally acquired in 2018 to find lost children, was used at a political rally for the first time on Dec 22, when prime minister Narendra Modi staunchly defended the contentious law in New Delhi, the paper said. Police in the Indian capital have started feeding footage of ongoing protests to the software to filter out "habitual protesters” and "rowdy elements", according to the report.