State surveillance can have positive and negative effects, depending on context. It can normalise and worsen violence by policing women’s bodies, erasing trans/queer bodies, and enforcing gender norms to behave a certain way. When surveillance is carried out using AI Facial Recognition Technologies, it can be highly inaccurate and prone to bias for dark-
skinned persons, which can lead to false identifications and false arrests. At the same time, surveillance can also be an empowering tool for marginalised communities, e.g. as evidence of innocence in cases of false accusations or when police officials refuse to believe their testimonies and experiences of violence. The issue of surveillance for the safety of women and trans/queer people thus depends on context: Who is being surveilled? How much control do the surveilled have over their circumstances and data?
