News
An unreliable facial recognition company claims Antifa was behind the Capitol riots – it’s utter bullshit
The company, XRVision, has a history of spreading conspiracy theories.
Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.
UPDATE 1/7/21 12:05 PM ET: It seems the report from Washington Times was false, with XRVision telling Buzzfeed News that the report is incorrect and that it has made no such statements. They have issued a cease and desist to WT. The original story follows below.
Yesterday, a bunch of Trump-supporting terrorists stormed the US Capitol. Of course, it didn’t take long for MAGAs to start claiming it wasn’t them, but in fact, it was Antifa actors.
Anyone with literally any critical thinking skills knows how ridiculous that claim is, but obviously, old white people are touting that people should “wait for the evidence.”
One piece of “evidence” comes from a facial recognition company called XRVision, which has a history of spreading false news and conspiracy theories, many revolving around Hunter Biden. This company and its “findings” were first touted by Washington Times, a right-wing “news” outlet. Like OneZero, we will not be linking to it because fuck ’em.
So, why exactly is the information from XRVision untrustworthy? Well, for multiple reasons, actually.
For one, as mentioned above, the company has made many unfounded claims about Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. You can find those over on LinkedIn.
Past that, however, and possibly more damning, is the fact that the company has not gone through any of the processes normally associated with facial recognition companies. Facial recognition is powerful, and companies engaged with the field typically submit information, databases, and algorithms to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
When you start combining all of these facts, it should be very clear that the company shouldn’t be trusted. But, sadly, that isn’t going to stop people from spreading this crap.
And don’t even get me started on facial recognition bias.
Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
Editors’ Recommendations:
- Too little, too late: Social media platforms finally take a stand against Trump
- Facebook doesn’t really plan on changing how it deals with Donald Trump
- A 12-year-old from England has been granted anonymity to possibly fight TikTok in court
- There’s still no TikTok deal, and apparently the US government is ok with that