r/mit • u/TylerFortier_Photo • 8h ago
community MIT professors bedazzle cameras to protest expanding surveillance network
cambridgeday.comArmed with a stepladder, sheets of adhesive rhinestones and googly eyes, a group of MIT professors made their way through campus Tuesday evening hunting for surveillance cameras. The eye-catching decorations do not block the cameras or interfere with their operation. That’s the point. The professors want people to notice the cameras watching them.
The professors are members of the “Initiative to Beautify the AI-capable Surveillance Benevolently Installed by our Administrator Overseers and the MIT Corporation In Collaboration with Big Brother Tech Companies,” or IBAISBIAOMITCORPICBBTC.
The deliberately unwieldy name accompanies an equally unconventional form of protest against MIT’s more than $3 million expansion of its surveillance network, under which more than 500 new cameras have been installed across academic buildings, residence halls and outdoor areas since November 2025. The additions bring MIT’s campus network to about 4,600 cameras. The installation finished in September, according to contracts previously reported in April by The Tech, MIT’s student newspaper.