Buenos Aires.- The Government of Argentina has expanded over the last two years, under the presidency of far-right leader Javier Milei, the use of surveillance technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI), which increased its capacity to collect information, establish profiles, and take reprisals, Amnesty International (AI) denounced this Wednesday.
In the report ‘State of surveillance: The expansion of the use of mass surveillance technologies by the Government of Argentina’, the organization denounced that these developments are an attack on human rights and documented institutional reforms promoted through resolutions and decrees to expand the State’s information gathering and surveillance capabilities.
Between 2024 and 2025, the Milei administration acquired surveillance technologies worth 1.2 million dollars, including social media monitoring tools, facial recognition systems, and aerial surveillance technologies.
“These technologies have become an integral part of state control infrastructure: dissent has been targeted, protest movements have been deterred, and marginalized groups have been harassed, among other authoritarian practices,” stated Matt Mahmoudi, researcher and expert on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, in the report.
Greater control for AI surveillance
The study was prepared based on 21 interviews with journalists, activists, pensioners, young people, and human rights defenders, in addition to the analysis of procurement documents, data on acquired technologies, and information obtained through access to information requests.
Those acquisitions include platforms capable of collecting and analyzing large volumes of data from social networks, websites, the dark web, and public databases, as well as facial recognition software, drones and ground stations with automated tracking, thermal cameras, and real-time image transmission.
AI stated that these tools are especially affecting journalists, activists, and migrants, some of whom, as they expressed in their interviews, began to self-censor and reduce their participation in protests for fear of being identified.
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File photo of a protester with an Argentine flag at a protest against the Milei Government’s labor reform, in Buenos Aires (Argentina). EFE/ Juan Ignacio Roncoroni.
One of the people interviewed, Ana Tapia, from the Insurgent Retirees collective, recounted: “They have identified absolutely everyone for a long time now (…). When you walk (…), suddenly, you see the drone in the air right over your head. Sometimes a couple of meters away. Why so close? Why is it so invasive?”
Amnesty calls for the regulation of surveillance technologies
Amnesty International asked the Argentine government to prohibit the development, production, sale, and use of remote biometric recognition technologies for discriminatory surveillance and to establish mechanisms for regulation, supervision, and accountability regarding these tools.
“Argentina must demonstrate its commitment to human rights by ensuring that artificial intelligence-based surveillance is not used unchecked and that those responsible for human rights abuses perpetrated by these systems are held accountable for their actions,” stated Mahmoudi.
