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Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

everestpipkin.github.io

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Re: Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

#211

Post by itsspring »

adge wrote: post #31
hirundo wrote: post #13

The protests were sparked by the lack of accountability of the police resulting in police brutality. The violent people among the protesters are subject to the same incentives. The more they expect to be held accountable, the more likely they will refrain from violence. Anonymizing photos of the violent ones is therefore likely to support their actions by making accountability less likely. To scrub ethically, limit i…

Many organizers of protests in Furguson, peaceful or otherwise, have since been found murdered in ways that suggest they were literally hunted down and killed for their involvement. Multiple have been found shot through the head in burned out cars to destroy all evidence. If they broke the law it still does not merit being executed in the street. ( https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/puzzling-number-men-tie... ) In…

> How would you find their identity afterwards?

Only responding to this part. I've seen enough people get dox'd on the internet from static photos that I continue to be impressed each time by the skill of volunteer/angry people on

Re: Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

#212

Post by thephyber »

anonymousiam wrote: post #152

Timely article, but what about violent criminal activity during protests? Peaceful protests are wonderful and have been very effective throughout history. The protests we've seen for the past few days are not helping anything. Yes, people are angry at the criminal behavior of the police officer/murderer, but manifesting that anger by destroying property, looting, injuring, and threatening others, is only going to jus…

These are two separate things happening at near the same places. This is being done on purpose by people with anarchist tendencies -- to hide among legitimate protesters.

Some agitators are anti-government. Others are full on anarchists. Others want to bait people into race wars (a la the Turner Diaries, cited by white nationalist mass shooters and the Oklahoma City bomber).

Re: Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

#213

Post by japhyr »

groby_b wrote: post #196
artifact_44 wrote: post #184

As of today, the president is designating antifascist protestors as a terrorist organization.

The "president" has his thumb up his ass, because that's actually not a thing he's legally able to do. Neither is there a domestic terrorism statute, nor is there any legal authority to designate a domestic organization as a terrorist group. So, even though the "president" is pro-fascist, he's really still got his hands tied there.

> because that's actually not a thing he's legally able to do

This has not helped a whole lot over the last 3.5 years. When something is illegal, but no one is willing to enforce it, the legality doesn't have much impact.

This president, and the current administration, has demonstrated little regard for legality, and a clear intention to grab as much power as they can.

Re: Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

#214

Post by fyrabanks »

yayadarsh wrote: post #203
westmeal wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not following the news for my sanity. Was he referring to antifa or actual anti fascists?

Antifa is an umbrella term. From Wikipedia: > Antifa is not an interconnected or unified organization, but rather a movement without a hierarchical leadership structure, comprising multiple autonomous groups and individuals

In his tweet, I do believe POTUS was referring to Antifa in the same way as the question--as a fictional, hierarchical organization.

Re: Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

#215

Post by thephyber »

ssalazar wrote: post #200
coolspot wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are examples of pure looting. E.g. The Grove in Los Angeles: https://youtu.be/hpXdXLaJhKE

Ugly but beside the point. Why arent the police protecting these businesses, if looting is such a concern, rather than instigating peaceful protestors? Besides, these businesses are all insured; Im certain that Apple and Luxottica, some of the richest companies in the world, can write off the loss. By contrast, nothing will bring back George Floyd, let alone the countless black people afflicted by police brutality th…

I'm pro-protest and pro-police-accountability-reforms, but some of your logic fails.

> Besides, these businesses are all insured

Some of them are. But having to claim on insurance is an expensive proposition that eats into profit margins (which is extra difficult in the middle of a worldwide depression).

> Im certain that Apple and Luxottica, some of the richest companies in the world, can write off the loss.

Most companies aren't multinational megacorps in high profit businesses.

I drove through South Central Los Angeles about 1 year after the Rodney King riots. I don't know what proportion of the businesses were rebuilt, but it was pretty clearly that many of the buildings hasn't been rebuilt. Large scale building damage takes a LONG time to rebuild and probably means the business can't run until it's done.

Re: Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

#216

Post by yters »

throwanem wrote: post #187
anonymousiam wrote: post #152

Timely article, but what about violent criminal activity during protests? Peaceful protests are wonderful and have been very effective throughout history. The protests we've seen for the past few days are not helping anything. Yes, people are angry at the criminal behavior of the police officer/murderer, but manifesting that anger by destroying property, looting, injuring, and threatening others, is only going to jus…

Oh, I don't know. Peaceful protests of police violence have been a regular feature of life here in Baltimore, thanks to our famously corrupt and racist PD, but it took the 2015 Freddie Gray protests - which occurred in the wake of the same kind of murder as was done to George Floyd, and were violent enough to garner nationwide coverage - to spark the federal investigation that led to the 2017 consent decree and the o…

I've heard the 2015 riots resulted in a stand down of the police force in Baltimore, and since then crime in the city has increased significantly. Sounds like the reason criminals are not rioting is because they won. Great for the criminals, but not great for their victims, which are probably mostly the improvished, not the affluent who can afford a replacement for the missing police.

In all these riot situations, it is portrayed as the poor sticking it to the rich, who presumably are using the police to oppress the poor. But I suspect that in reality it is mostly the poor becoming even more downtrodden by the criminal elements, and the rich remain unaffected. Perhaps the rich even profit a bit from what happens, such as politicians winning more government money to "help with all the troubles".

Re: Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

#217

Post by egypturnash »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #130
wongarsu wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blurring isn't that good at destroying information, I think we mostly use it because it's the best looking censoring attempt. I would pixelate the faces to be just 4x4 giant pixels. It destroys nearly as much information as blacking them out while still not disrupting the image too much

If final appearance is important, just blur a bunch of pictures of Trump and paste the appropriate one over the face. Or an unblurred face for that matter.

Shit, how about just pasting Trump’s face over everyone’s and not bothering to blur it? There’s probably enough pictures of him out there to match any angle and expression. Detect face, deep fake that area into Trump.

Re: Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

#218

Post by thephyber »

on_and_off wrote: post #183
anonymousiam wrote: post #152

Timely article, but what about violent criminal activity during protests? Peaceful protests are wonderful and have been very effective throughout history. The protests we've seen for the past few days are not helping anything. Yes, people are angry at the criminal behavior of the police officer/murderer, but manifesting that anger by destroying property, looting, injuring, and threatening others, is only going to jus…

They tried kneeling and it was super effective!!

But you know that they kneeled. Their marketing broke through your attention defenses.

The problem is converting that into something tangible that furthers their goals.

Re: Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

#219

Post by chrisseaton »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #193
chrisseaton wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't reverse it if the data is gone. That's the problem - the data you think is gone isn't gone. High frequencies are gone.... but you left all the low frequencies, didn't you? You can read a face from the low frequencies.

If you blur then mosaic, or vice-versa, then presumably you get rid of the low and high frequencies? Depending on the detail shown in the original image either, or both, might remove enough information to render the image anonymised. How about replace each face with a "this is not a person" AI generated face, then blur+mosaic. Or just a non-person face using a deepfake system that matches the facial expression?

Why do all these complicated things?

Just draw a black box over faces.

Re: Image Scrubber: tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests

#220

Post by groby_b »

bardworx wrote: post #207
groby_b wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "president" has his thumb up his ass, because that's actually not a thing he's legally able to do. Neither is there a domestic terrorism statute, nor is there any legal authority to designate a domestic organization as a terrorist group. So, even though the "president" is pro-fascist, he's really still got his hands tied there.

According to Wikipedia (maybe not optimal source), via the PATRIOT Act, groups can be designated as domestic terrorists. I don’t know anything about this topic. Can you expand why you said that there is no “...legal authority to designate a domestic organization as a terrorist group”. I’m no asking about Antifa specifically but generally. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_terrorism_in_the_Un...

The very first sentence of the Wikipedia article you linked to has your answer: "Domestic terrorism in the United States consists of incidents confirmed as terrorist acts."

incidents confirmed as terrorist acts. The PATRIOT act defines acts of terrorism.

It's on a case-by-case basis. It is not possible to take a domestic organization and designate it wholesale as terrorists.

The page also explains that there is no federal criminal offense that is "domestic terrorism".

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