From spreading information to organizing mass protests, technology can be a powerful tool to create change. However, when used as a weapon, AI can be detrimental to the safety of protesters and undermine their efforts. In the past few years, the vast majority of international protests have used social media to increase support for their cause. One successful mass international protest was the 2019 climate strike. According to the Guardian, about 6 million people across the world participated in the movement.

HONG KONG – A unit of Activision Blizzard Inc. has punished a player for expressing support for Hong Kong's protest movement, the latest example of a U.S. company attempting to rein in speech that might displease the Chinese Communist Party. Blizzard Entertainment said it was banning Ng Wai Chung, also known as Blitzchung, from its professional Hearthstone esports competition for a year. Blizzard is also withholding money he had already earned in the company's top-tier Grandmasters tournament, which Ng said in a Twitter message cost him $10,000 of prize earnings. The move was triggered when Ng -- dressed in a gas mask and goggles in defiance of authorities' ban on face masks -- used a slogan in support of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters during a post-match interview. "After an investigation, we are taking the necessary actions to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future," Blizzard said in a statement.

They grabbed his jaw to force his head in front of his iPhone. It all failed: Mr. Cheung had disabled his phone's facial-recognition login with a quick button mash as soon as they grabbed him. As Hong Kong convulses amid weeks of protests, demonstrators and the police have turned identity into a weapon. The authorities are tracking protest leaders online and seeking their phones. Many protesters now cover their faces, and they fear that the police are using cameras and possibly other tools to single out targets for arrest.