Faces of the Riots contains links to the videos scrapped from Parler.
Faces of the Riots / Screen shot by Steven Musil
A website designed to identify individuals in the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill was quietly taken into use earlier this month, displaying thousands of facial images of people allegedly involved in the deadly siege.
The site, called Faces of the Riot, contains nearly 6,000 images taken from videos uploaded 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 the admission of reports of the uprising that led to the deaths of five people.
The images come from an archive of Parler that hackers created by delete posts and location data for images and videos before being taken offline. The designers of the site used face-tracking software to retrieve images from 827 videos posted on Parler inside and outside the U.S. Capitol building.
The intent is to help the FBI identify who was involved in the siege, one of the site’s two creators told CNET.
“Previously, everyone held accountable was a ‘famous politician’ or a notable figure, one of the site’s creators, who asked not to be identified, told CNET via instant messaging. “But there were thousands of other people there who also had to be held accountable for this.”
A Twitter account for the site started tweeting on January 15, and the site has been archived since January 16
The violence on Capitol Hill began when lawmakers rallied to count the votes of the Electoral College and confirm Joe Biden’s victory. The violence followed a rally held by incumbent President Donald Trump, which encouraged his supporters to march to the building. Legislators had to be evacuated and troops of the national guard were deployed to restore order.
The Faces of the Riot website, previously reported by Wired, is minimalist and laid out in a grid of images that often look like mugshots. Each image is linked to the original video showing what the individual did that day at the Capitol. The site discourages users from conducting their own investigations and encourages them to share tips with the FBI.
“We aim to make it easier to find tips to submit to the FBI, not for an average user to identify people, because it can be dangerous,” said one of the site’s creators, who described himself as a computer science student in Virginia.
The designers of the site invite users to accidentally report any image that is in the database. The creators of the site will remove inaccurate images.
“We spent about 5 hours manually removing photos of children and non-rioters before publishing the database,” said the site’s maker, adding that they had no contact with the FBI, although submitted some tips of their own.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.