Ring Nation: Surveillance Videos Become Reality TV

• “Ring Nation” is a new reality show based on video content supplied by Ring security camera customers.
• By framing security camera videos as a source of fun, Ring Nation implicitly makes surveillance an acceptable social practice.
• Making surveillance “normal” increases the chance of overlooking the potential dangers to privacy and civil liberties.

Ring customers with home security cameras are now content providers. Ring, now owned by Amazon, shares “the best” of their customers’ surveillance videos on their website tv.ring.com. Sharing security videos isn’t new. TikTok videos with the #RingDoorbell hashtag have over 2.5 billion views.

However, starting in Fall 2022, these fish-eye framed videos will have a new and bigger distribution channel-television programming called Ring Nation. It is produced by MGM, another Amazon purchase, and hosted by Wanda Sykes. I don’t know what to worry about the most; the fact that the show is being made or that people will watch it. Surveillance as entertainment. What could go wrong?

The use of Ring camera videos for a TV program is a clever marketing move by the company. It challenges existing social norms about security monitoring by classifying it as entertainment. What used to be invasive and creepy is now not only…