A London council has gone full Orwell mode, Big Brother Watch has warned

Hammersmith and Fulham Council have committed to massively expanded surveillance in the area, according to Big Brother Watch. This will include more camera, facial recognition and a FLEET OF DRONES!

But don’t worry, it will only cost us a mere… THREE MILLION QUID.

Warning that the area would be turned into a AI open prison, Big Brother Watch tweeted:

🚨 NEWS 🚨

Hammersmith & Fulham Council IS GOING FULL ORWELL proposing:

🔸 Permanent fixed cameras with live facial recognition
🔸 A fleet of drones to monitor people
🔸 Cameras with retrospective facial recognition to trace people’s movements across the borough
🔸 500 AI… pic.twitter.com/gUJ3SbAokd

— Big Brother Watch (@BigBrotherWatch) September 18, 2025

They pointed out that London already has more cameras per person than anywhere in the country:

🥴 The council already has more cameras per person than anywhere else in the UK (2,000)

Yet, it is among the top 10 most dangerous boroughs in London.

Not only do they want to subject their residents to real-time identity checks through live facial recognition…

They also… pic.twitter.com/xvPM2WxIgH

— Big Brother Watch (@BigBrotherWatch) September 18, 2025

And that the move could end privacy in public areas altogether:

⚠️Hammersmith and Fulham Council's facial recognition plans amount to an unprecedented level of mass surveillance and it marks the end of privacy in the public space as we know it.

Read⤵️https://t.co/cADLRcgSa0

— Big Brother Watch (@BigBrotherWatch) September 18, 2025

Surveillance capital

Facial recognition technology is extremely controversial. And, the racial dimension of the tech cannot be forgotten. On 16 September, we reported how the London Met has admitted not using used facial recognition technology at the massive fascist-organised rally in London last weekend. However, the Met did decide to use it at Notting Hill carnival recently.

Facial recognition has also been used in the past against anti-arms trade activists and is routinely used by authoritarian states like Israel, with chilling effect.

Featured image via Unsplash/Alan Hendry