Clearview AI, a facial recognition company that has scraped billions of photos from across the internet without consent, has come under intense scrutiny not only for its privacy-invading technology but also for its troubling connections to far-right extremists.
Founded by Hoan Ton-That, the company clims its technology is used by over 600 law enforcement agencies and businesses like Best Buy and Macy’s.
At the center of these concerns is the company’s relationship with Douglass Mackey, better known by his online persona “Ricky Vaughn” – a notorious alt-right operative and white nationalist who worked as a contract consultant for Smartcheckr (Clearview AI’s predecessor).
Mackey, who was arrested in 2021 on federal election interference charges, reportedly pitched Clearview’s technology to anti-Semitic congressional candidate Paul Nehlen for campaign opposition research.
These connections aren’t isolated incidents – investigations have revealed Ton-That’s extensive network of relationships with white supremacists and far-right activists, including attending a dinner with Richard Spencer and participating in a Slack channel run by far-right activist Chuck Johnson.
The dangerous combination of biased facial recognition technology in the hands of those with extremist ideologies raises alarming questions about how this technology might be deployed against vulnerable communities, threatening privacy, civil liberties, and dmocratic values.
Clearview AI: Background and Operations
Clearview AI, a company that’s stirred up quite a buzz in the tech world. Founded by Hoan Ton-That in 2017, Clearview AI started as a little-known startup called Smartcheckr.
Ton-That, an Australian entrepreneur, teamed up with Richard Schwartz to create what would become a controversial facial recognition powerhouse.
Clearview AI’s business model is pretty straightforward, yet it raises eyebrows. They scrape billions of images from social media and websites without asking permission.
It’s like building the world’s biggest yearbook without telling anyone they’re in it. This massive database became the foundation for their powerful facial recognition software.
The company claims their tech is used by over 600 law enforcement agencies. FBI, Homeland Security, and even some big stores like Best Buy and Macy’s have reportedly been clients.
It’s not just about catching bad guys. Clearview AI says their tool can help find missing persons and solve cold cases too.
But here’s the kicker: Clearview AI’s methods have landed them in hot water. They’ve faced lawsuits, bans in some countries, and plenty of criticism from privacy advocates.
Despite the controversy, the company keeps growing. They’ve expanded their database to over 20 billion images and even launched a product called Clearview Consent for commercial use.
Love it or hate it, Clearview AI has changed the game in facial recognition technology. It’s a story of innovation, ethical debates, and the ever-blurring line between privacy and public safety in our digital age.
Ricky Vaughn: Profile of a Far-Right Operative
Behind every digital mask lies a real person, and few online personas have been as influential or controversial as Ricky Vaughn.
In reality, Douglass Mackey, born around 1990 and raised in Vermont, created this alter ego that would become one of the most powerful voices in far-right politics during the 2016 election.
After graduating from Middlebury College with an economics degree in 2011, Mackey transformed into Ricky Vaughn (named after Charlie Sheen’s character in the movie Major League).
His Twitter account @Ricky_Vaughn99 amassed 58,000 followers and was ranked by the MIT Media Lab as the 107th most influential election voice – outranking NBC News, Stephen Colbert, and Newt Gingrich.
The Southern Poverty Law Center described Vaughn as “one of the most prolific and longstanding alt-right personalities on Twitter.”
Mackey specialized in blending extreme white nationalist talkng points with mainstream conservative ideas, posting over 100 tweets daily that mixed news articles with racist and antisemitic content from sites like the neo-Nazi publication Daily Stormer.
In January 2021, Mackey faced federal charges for election interference under the Ku Klux Klan Act. He had created deceptive memes targeting Black and Latino voters, falsely claiming they could vote for Hillary Clinton by text message. Nearly 5,000 people attempted to “vote” using this fake method.
In March 2023, a jury rejected Mackey’s “shitposting” defense and convicted him. Judge Ann Donnelly sentenced him to seven months in prison, calling his actions “nothing short of an assault on our democracy.” His appeal was heard on April 5, 2024.
Documented Connections Between Clearview AI and Ricky Vaughn
Imagine finding out your tech company hired someone who turned out to be a secret online villain. That is exactly what happened with Clearview AI and Douglass Mackey, better known as “Ricky Vaughn.”
Before Clearview AI existed, its predecessor company Smartcheckr brought Mackey on as a contract consultant. This connection has since become a major headache for Hoan Ton-That, the facial recognition company’s founder.
Back in 2017-2018, Mackey worked for Smartcheckr while simultaneously running his infamous Ricky Vaughn Twitter account.
During this time, he pitched the company’s technology to Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semitic congressional candidate running for Paul Ryan’s seat in Wisconsin.
The pitch included using facial recognition and proprietary search technology for “extreme opposition research” – basically digging up dirt on political opponents. This sales attempt happened without proper authorization, according to Ton-That.
After Nehlen publicly revealed Mackey as Ricky Vaughn in 2018, Smartcheckr employees quickly distanced themselves from him.
Ton-That has tried hard to separate himself from Mackey, telling the Huffington Post that Mackey was only contracted for three weeks and was not authorized to make the offer to Nehlen. However, the damage was done.
The timeline shows a troubling pattern: Mackey worked for Smartcheckr while simultaneously operating as one of the most influential far-right voices online.
By the time Clearview AI officially formed and secured funding from Peter Thiel in summer 2018, the company had already taken steps to cut ties with Mackey after his identity was exposed.
Nevertheless, this connection has remained a stain on the company’s reputation as it expanded its controversial facial recognition services to law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Broader Far-Right Network Around Clearview AI
Clearview AI, whose founder Hoan Ton-That has a web of connections to far-right extremists that runs deeper than most realize.
Back in 2016, Ton-That attended a dinner with white supremacist Richard Spencer, organized by Jeff Giesea, a known financier of the “alt-right” movement and associate of billionaire Peter Thiel.
This was not just a random meeting – it was part of a pattern of far-right associations that would shape the company’s development.
Ton-That was also an active member of a Slack channel run by far-right activist Chuck Johnson, whose crowdfunding platform WeSearchr was primarily used by white supremacists.
This digital clubhouse included the webmaster of neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer and conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich.
In January 2017, Johnson bragged on Facebook about “building algorithms to ID all the illegal immigrants for the deportation squads” and reportedly tried to pitch this technology to Trump advisor Stephen Miller.
The financial backing for Clearview AI reveals another layer of right-wing connections. Peter Thiel, the conservative billionaire who secretly funded the lawsuit that bnkrupted Gawker Media, invested $200,000 in Clearview in 2017.
Perhaps most troubling was Marko Jukic, who marketed Clearview’s technology to police departments across the United States while privately publishing “many thousands of extremist words” under a pseudonym.
In these writings, he advocated for segregation and used racial slurs. After his views were exposed, Ton-That claimed to be “shocked” and separated him from the company.
Controversial Business Practices
The company has flip-flopped between claiming 98.6%, 99.6%, and even 100% accuracy for their facial recognition technology.
When Clearview AI boasted about achieving “100% accurate” results using the American Civil Liberties Union’s testing methodology, the ACLU quickly fired back, calling the report “absurd” and stating that “Clearview’s test couldn’t be more different from the ACLU’s work”.
The company has also been caught stretching the truth about its law enforcement partnerships.
While Clearview AI claims its software has been used by more than 600 law enforcement agencies, investigations revealed they sometimes counted agencies they merely submitted tips to via crime hotlines as “partners”.
This pattern of misrepresentation has damaged their credibility with both the public and potential clients.
Major tech platforms have fought back against Clearview AI’s practices. Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Venmo all sent cease-and-desist letters to the company for scraping billions of images from their platforms without permission.
Despite these legal challenges, Clearview AI founder Hoan Ton-That argues he has a First Amendment right to access public data.
For everyday people concerned about privacy, Clearview AI offers limited opt-out options. Until recently, users had almost no way to remove themselves from the database.
Now, residents of certain states like Illinois, California, and Colorado can request removal through an online form that requires uploading a photo of your face – a process many find ironically invasive. For most people worldwide, however, no opt-out mechanism exists at all.
Legal Challenges and Regulatory Response
This facial recognition company has faced a tidal wave of legal challenges from all corners.
State attorneys general have been leading the charge. Vermont’s AG sued Clearview AI for violating consumer protection laws, while New Jersey’s AG ordered all police in the state to stop using Clearview products.
It’s not just a local issue either – 22 states and Washington D.C. have joined forces to oppose Clearview’s recent settlement offer, arguing it doesn’t do enough to protect people’s privacy.
Local governments aren’t sitting on the sidelines. Many have banned the use of Clearview AI by their law enforcement agencies. Even across the border, Canadian privacy commissioners have launched investigations into the company’s practices.
But here’s where it gets really interesting: Clearview AI is fighting back using the First Amendment. They argue that scraping publicly available photos is protected free speech.
It’s a bold claim that has privacy advocates worried. If the courts agree, it could make it much harder to regulate how companies use our personal data in the future.
As this legal battle rages on, one thing’s clear: the way we think about privacy in the digital age is changing fast. The outcome of these cases could shape how we balance innovation and personal rights for years to come.
Ethical Implications of Biased Technology in Extremist Hands
This nightmare has become reality for people like Robert Williams, a Black man wrongfully arrested in front of his family because facial recognition software got it wrong. When powerful technology falls into the wrong hands, the dangers multiply.
Facial recognition technology shows alarming bias agaist people with darker skin. Studies reveal error rates as high as 34.7% for darker-skinned women compared to just 0.8% for light-skinned men.
This is not just a technical glitch – it is a serious threat to civil rights. Black and Indigenous communities already face disproportionate policing, and biased technology only makes this worse.
The Hong Kong protests of 2019 showed how extremist governments can weaponize this technology. Authorities used facial recognition to identify protesters, leading many to wear masks and use laser pointers to blind surveillance cameras.
In the United States, far-right groups like those connected to Clearview AI have concerning ties to white nationalist movements, raising questions about how this technology might be deployed against political opponents.
For marginalized communities, the stakes are incredibly high. In 2017, ICE used facial recognition to locate and arrest 400 family members of migrant children.
Privacy advocates warn that without proper regulation, these tools enable mass surveillance that chills free speech and assembly rights.
The combination of biased algorithms and extremist ideologies creates a perfect storm where technology becomes a tool for oppression rather than progress.
Conclusion
Clearview AI’s troubling connections to far-right figures like Douglass Mackey (aka Ricky Vaughn) and white supremacist Richard Spencer reveal a disturbing pattern.
The company’s founder, Hoan Ton-That, participated in Chuck Johnson’s Slack channel alongside neo-Nazi website operators and conspiracy theorists, while receiving funding from conservative billionaire Peter Thiel.
These connections matter because facial recognition technology isn’t politically neutral. With a database of over 20 billion scraped images and contracts with agencies like ICE and FBI, Clearview’s technology could enable unprecedented surveillance of political opponents and marginalized communities.
The ethical implications are profound. When technology built by those with extremist ties claims 99.6% accuracy while showing bias against people with darker skin, we face serious risks to civil liberties.
As Canadian privacy commissioners and the UK Information Commissioner’s Office have recognized through investigations and fines, stronger regulation is urgently needed.
We must scrutinize not just the technology but who builds it. The intersction of algorithmic bias, surveillance capitalism, and far-right ideology creates a perfect storm that threatens privacy and democracy itself. Without proper oversight, these tools risk becoming weapons of digital oppression rather than progress.
