Witness In The News

YouTube Blurs the Lines

July 19, 2012 - Marketplace

The video site rolled out a new tool yesterday that can blur faces in videos. The editing feature was built in response to the increasing amount of dissident video-makers who use the site to get out news of their struggles, sometimes putting people featured in the clips at great risk.
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YouTube Lets Video Posting Thugs Blur Faces

July 19, 2012 - NBC Bay Area

YouTube launched the new face-blurring tool in order to decrease the risk surrounding activists. This article questions whether the new feature will also lead to the posting of pranks by people who can now conceal their identity.
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YouTube Adds Face-Blurring Tool After Pressure for More Privacy

July 19, 2012 - The Stir

YouTube's new face-blurring tool is meant to protect the identities of activists in human rights videos. However, this tool can also be used for the average parent posting family videos.
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YouTube Introduces Face Blurring Technology

July 19, 2012 - News Today Digest

YouTube becomes the first to offer the visual anonymity tools called for in WITNESS' Cameras Everywhere Report. Thier new face blurring tool will have benefits both for the average user and the human rights activist. "...Visual anonymity in video allows people to share their personal footage more widely and to speak out when they otherwise may not want to share."

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It's All a Blur: YouTube Offers It's Most Obscure Protection Yet

July 19, 2012 - IT Wire

Many citizen journalists take videos from protests and demonstrations to upload to YouTube. Depending on where they are, this act could put them in great risk. YouTube's new face-blurring tool allows activists to protect their identites and decrease this risk.
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Google Introduces Face-Blurring to Protect Protestors on YouTube

July 19, 2012 - The Guardian

Protestors now have the option to blur their faces to protect them from authorities if their videos are featured on YouTube.
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YouTube Protects Activists with New Face-Blurring Feature

July 19, 2012 - TG Daily

YouTube answers WITNESS' call for a face-blurring option to protect visual anonymity in video sharing. Sam Gregory explains the real need for this tool; "in places like Syria, activists on the ground note how often people are identified and tracked down because of the videos that they share online," he says.

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YouTube's New Face Blur Tool and What It Means for Activists Globally

July 19, 2012 - Global Voices Advocacy

Program Director, Sam Gregory, discusses the new YouTube face-blur feature and what it means for human rights activists.
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YouTube's Face-Blur Tool Aims to Protect Identity of Citizen Journalists, Uphold Human Rights Issues

July 19, 2012 - International Business Times

YouTube responds to call by WITNESS to protect identity of citizen journalists and launches the new face-blurring tool.
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YouTube Announces Easy Face-Blurring Tool to Protect Anonymity of Video Subjects

July 18, 2012 - The Altantic

The Atlantic interviews Sam Gregory as noting that the tool "will help people not just in mass setting but in more direct testimonial videos in which they are the only actors."
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