Agree fully with the main points of this statement. Mass domestic surveillance is the hallmark of an authoritarian and undemocratic state. That such a state holds 'votes' regularly does not detract from the chilling effect on public discourse and politics caused by mass surveillance.
The guardrail on fully automated weapons makes perfect sense, and hopefully becomes standardised globally.
if the people broadly support and vote for mass democratic surveillance, is it still authoritarian and undemocratic?
Democratic maybe, authoritarian definitely
I disagree that surveillance on its own is authoritarian, it doesn't even come close to meeting the definition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism