U.S. Senator Ron Wyden has urged President Joe Biden's administration to conduct an investigation following a report from Reuters showing how Russian authorities rely on facial recognition systems using American technology to suppress opposition. Wyden stated, "U.S. technology should not be a key part of the Russian authoritarian surveillance machine." He added to Reuters, "The administration needs to thoroughly investigate claims of American chips being used in the facial recognition and surveillance system in Russia and do everything necessary to stop the flow of sensitive technology to Putin and his associates."
His comments came in response to a Reuters report last month revealing that surveillance and facial recognition technologies played a significant role in the arrest of hundreds of protesters in Moscow. The authorities reportedly began using facial recognition to prevent individuals from protesting following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In response, representatives from Nvidia and Intel stated that they could not control how their products were used and that they had halted all shipments to Russia in March 2022 after the U.S. tightened export restrictions. Russian customs records indicated that technologies from the two companies continued to make their way to Russia through third parties between April 1, 2022, and October 31, 2022. Nvidia mentioned that it is committed to all applicable laws, and a spokesperson said, "If we learn that any Nvidia customer is violating U.S. export laws and shipping our products to Russia, we will cease doing business with them."
