Faces of the Riots includes links to videos taken from Parler.
Faces of the Riots / Screen shot by Steven Musil
A website designed to help identify individuals in the January 6 Capitol disturbances was quietly aired earlier this month, displaying thousands of facial images of people who allegedly participated in the deadly siege.
The site, called Faces of the Riot, includes nearly 6,000 images captured from videos sent to Parler, a social media site popular with conservatives. Parler, which has become a haven for racist and extremist content, was recently forced offline for allowing posts about the uprising that killed five people.
The images come from a Parler file created by hackers collecting messages and location data for images and videos before being taken offline. The site’s creators used open source facial detection software to extract images from 827 videos that were posted to Parler from inside and outside the United States Capitol building.
The intention is to help the FBI identify who took part in the siege, one of the site’s creators told CNET.
“Before that, all those responsible were famous politicians” or a notable figure, one of the site’s creators, who asked not to be identified, told CNET via direct messages on Twitter. “But there were thousands of other people there who should also be held responsible for this.”
A Twitter account for the site started tweeting on January 15, and the site has been archived since January 16
Capitol violence began when lawmakers met to count the votes of the Electoral College and confirm Joe Biden’s victory. The violence came after a demonstration by former President Donald Trump, who encouraged his supporters to march on the building. Lawmakers had to be evacuated and National Guard troops were dispatched to restore order.
The Faces of the Riot website, which was previously reported by Wired, is minimalist and is organized in a grid of images that often resemble photos of photos. Each image is linked to the original video that shows what the individual was doing that day on Capitol Hill. The site discourages users from conducting their own investigations and encourages them to share tips with the FBI.
“Our goal is to make it easier to find tips for sending to the FBI, not for an ordinary user to identify people, as it can be dangerous,” said one of the site’s creators, who described himself as a computer science student in Virginia.
The creators of the site invite users to report any image that may be in the database by mistake. The creators of the site will delete wrong images.
“We spent about 5 hours manually removing pictures of children and non-mutineers before publishing the database,” said the website’s creator, adding that he had no contact with the FBI, although he did send some tips of his own.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.