Germany’s Pirate Party organizes demonstration
Members of Germany’s Pirate Party organized a so-called “flesh mob” of next-to-naked protesters against the use of full-body scanners at airports. Protesters marked their bodies with messages like “Be a good citizen – drop your pants”; one woman dressed in a beige sweater and tights with a sign that said “pixelated” (scanners can be programmed to produce blurred, pixelated images to protect a person’s privacy). Full-body scanners use high-frequency radio waves to produce an image of a passenger’s naked body under their clothes, exposing anything they’re carrying against the body, as well as prosthetic devices and breast implants. Privacy and legal concerns have been raised, especially since it’s unclear if the scanners could find explosives hidden inside the body. A video of the protest, with the soundtrack of Muse’s song “Uprising” (lyrics include “They will not force us. They will stop degrading us. They will not control us. We will be victorious!”) has since been posted to YouTube.