A style of online provocation that once marketed itself as citizen oversight of police and government appears to be spilling further into everyday life in San Diego, with at least two widely shared local social media posts in roughly the last day showing self-described or popularly described “First Amendment auditors” filming ordinary people outside businesses in highly trafficked public-facing spaces.
The latest examples of situations involving alleged “auditors” in San Diego circulated from Sally’s Waterfront Dining along the bayfront near Seaport Village and from outside Trader Joe’s locations around San Diego. These posts are the most recent to fuel fresh local frustration over a social-media-native phenomenon that critics say has drifted far from any serious accountability mission.
One of the posts now making the rounds came from Instagram user @rayrock, whose video showed several men with cameras filming through the glass at Sally’s Waterfront Dining while he appeared to be eating inside. “Never thought this day would happen. Getting harassed in sunny San Diego. Thought it was only on tik tok videos,” the caption read. A separate Reddit thread in r/sandiego that quickly drew thousands of upvotes claimed that four “First Amendment auditors” had posted up at the entrance and exit of Trader Joe’s in Hillcrest, with the original poster writing that shoppers largely seemed to know not to engage. Another Reddit thread showed “weirdos” filming outside Trader Joe’s Pacific Highlands Ranch, with yet another posted about them outside a school in the area…