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The Coldplay kiss cam & moral surveillance

By Brittany Luse,
Liam McBain, Neena Pathak
Published July 25, 2025 at 6:20 AM EDT
When did we all start surveilling each other?
Getty Images
When did we all start surveilling each other?

Whether it's the Coldplay kiss cam or screenshots of dating profiles, it feels like any one of our private lives could inadvertently go public any minute now.

A Coldplay concert kiss cam video went viral when one couple featured jumped away from each other and hid their faces. The internet quickly identified the concertgoers, and it turned the couple's life upside-down. It makes you think though...could this happen to me too?

Brittany talks with Kate Wagner, architecture critic at The Nation, to discuss what this viral moment says about our eroding privacy in both public and private life, and how we've internalized casual surveillance. Do we all carry Coldyplay kiss cams in the form of our phones?

Read Kate's article in Lux Magazine about why internet surveillance is killing eroticism here.

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Brittany Luse
Brittany Luse is an award-winning journalist, on-air host, and cultural critic. She is the host of It's Been a Minute and For Colored Nerds. Previously Luse hosted The Nod and Sampler podcasts, and co-hosted and executive produced The Nod with Brittany and Eric, a daily streaming show. She's written for Vulture and Harper's Bazaar, among others, and edited for the podcasts Planet Money and Not Past It. Luse and her work have been profiled by publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, and Teen Vogue.
Liam McBain
Liam McBain (he/him) is an assistant producer on It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders. He's interested in stories at the margins of culture.
Neena Pathak
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