Have your First Amendment rights ever been audited? Would you recognize if they were? And would you call the police if the “auditors” were behaving, well, creepily?
A hairstylist is going viral on TikTok after sharing that her salon was surrounded by a pack of individuals filming the store on their phones. She says she was confused by their presence and ended up calling the police, but her viewers claim the swarm was, in fact, a group of “First Amendment auditors.”
Stylist Libby Brenner posted her story of the encounter to her TikTok account (@locks.by.libbybrenner) on Wednesday. The video has over 454,500 views as of this writing.
“I officially think that people have lost their minds,” Brenner says at the start of the video. She says she was attending to a client at the salon where she works when she “noticed a man come to the windows and just put a camera to the windows and just leave it there.”
She states that she pointed the man out to her co-workers, at which point more people showed up outside “with their cameras … just putting them up to the windows and just recording us and our clients while we’re in there.”
Brenner then says that her mother, a co-owner of the salon, confronted the group outside by asking what they were doing but received no clear answer. “They won’t leave, and they just keep doing it,” Brenner says in the video.
“Again, we don’t know these people,” she continues. “I’ve never seen any of these men, and we’re pretty sure one of them was wearing a fake beard.” She then states that the group moved down the block, proceeding to film other businesses. She says at this point, she called the non-emergency line for the police.
Brenner states that she later saw police talking to a member of the group down the street from the salon. “I’m assuming that they told him to just get out of here because we didn’t see them again,” she says.
“I just want to know, has anyone else ever heard of this happening?” she asks her viewers.
Brenner provided footage that she says was taken during the encounter. In it, three men, whose faces are obscured by their own cameras, are seen filming. Two of the men say that they are there for a “camera party.”
Several of her viewers stated that what she had described was actually a First Amendment Audit.
What is a First Amendment audit?
According to Freedomforum.org, “A First Amendment audit occurs when people film public officials or employees to hold them accountable or ‘test’ their right to film in public spaces like town halls, libraries, police stations, parking lots, or state and local agencies. The public space ‘passes’ the test if the audit is uneventful. It fails the test if a public employee confronts the person filming — or ‘auditor’ — attempts to stop them from filming, threatens them with arrest, or removes them from the public space.”
@locks.by.libbybrenner So I had to call the cops today while at work. People have lost their minds. #hairstylist #hairstylistsoftiktok #ohiohairstylist #ohiotiktokers #ohiosalon ♬ original sound – Libby Brenner
“Auditors. Since it’s legal to record outside, they do. Trying to get a reaction from you,” Diane (@dianna2u) wrote in the comments section of Brenner’s video.
Another viewer commented, “Definitely one of those 1st amendment audit people.”
“They do this to audit the local police. To see if they know the rights of the camera person,” another added.
Some viewers offered advice on how to deal with the “auditors.”
“Have the cops issue a no trespass since you’re a private business…if they come and place the camera on your window call police and press charges, file restraining order, and sue for lost business,” DaLishaVicious (@dalishavicious) wrote.
Another viewer advised her to “Make a commercial out of it. They won’t use it. I’ve heard of this and 1 person has that idea. He started to promote his mechanic business … it was great! wish I could find [the] video again.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Brenner via email for further comment.
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