‘For me, the most important issue is the Games themselves’: anti-Olympic activism and AI video surveillance

This article explores the ways in which activists contest Olympic-related security and surveillance measures. The Olympics bring about some of the largest security operations globally and, by drawing upon qualitative data, the article questions (1) how ‘anti-Olympic’ activists contest practices, technologies and legacies of security, and (2) how these activists can be situated within a wider social space – a security field – structured around security claim-making. This article argues that despite activists’ efforts to question and critique security-related trends, the politics of (in)security constitute a significant barrier that may mute activists’ expressed discontent within the field. Further, activists’ critiques of security can only be fully understood if seen in relation to the more general social struggle against the Olympics-related gentrification, evictions, and human rights breaches which in itself is a struggle against injustices and uneven power structures in capitalist societies. These findings add to recent debates surrounding the importance of human rights and social justice within leisure contexts.