You can do something like this easily using stable diffusion and inpainting. Look into comfyUI or the AI horde if you don't have a GPU. You just mark a spot (a face) and ask the model to generate a face for you on that spot.
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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Thanks for the tip. I'd still prefer to run it locally (considering I want to protect identities... but I guess that you can paint over the faces with blobs and stable diffusion does the rest).
I'm honestly a bit baffled that it seemed so easy for snapchat 10 years ago and you can't find this stuff in the frikkin Debian repos.
In my experience Linux repos don't tend to include stuff like ComfyUI.
Thanks for the tip. I'd still prefer to run it locally (considering I want to protect identities... but I guess that you can paint over the faces with blobs and stable diffusion does the rest).
Them you can run it locally. You might be able to run it on RAM only but it will be very slow, but fort your use case it might be fine.
In my experience Linux repos don't tend to include stuff like ComfyUI
What I meant is that I'm baffled that the tech from waaay back then isn't more widely available by now (as widely available as "even the debian repos got a version of it").
Them you can run it locally. You might be able to run it on RAM only but it will be very slow, but fort your use case it might be fine.
I could, but inswapper_128 seems ok to use for nou. Now I need to check if my org would be ok with that approach. 😬
aighte, if it doesn't and you need a trusted GPU to use, lemme know and I can hook you up with mine.
That's nice of you, thx!
I found a github repo which uses insightface to do the exact job I wanted. I needed to fix the code a bit, but I managed to faceswap the crew of Star Trek TNG on the faces of these protestors who I found on a image search engine:
Bonus - Diego Luna on some stock image:
GL🖖 on your AI ~~slop~~ project!🤭😉 It missed a few spots!
Where exactly? I couldn't find any missed faces.
I think leaving hair and other features makes it a poor anonymizing tool. The faces may have been altered, but there's still information that can be used my motivated actors to correlate identities.
apparel, keepsakes, skeletal structures, gait, stylometry/graphy, etc.
Even the SIM & IMEI/ESN owners in this picture can be precisely tracked by geolocation of the time the picture was taken, since we know the date&hour of when the protest took place.
True. But depending on how much you pixellate that, those features are still commonlyseen when the faces are blurred.
of hand
Those are faceswapped. (Which shows how effective this is ;)
Check it with the original.
I did… Are you colorblind? I used purple to signify errors.
But those faces were swapped. (E.g.: that's whoppie Goldberg to the far left)
You can also just literally edit in any mask you want on photos.
E.g.
Stephen St. Clair@wsws.org posted this candid of protestors on August 28th against the genocide in Gaza:
And he could have protected them more than Laurence B. Alexander did hiring saboteurs, e.g.:
But always be mindful about of authoritarians hiring saboteurs at any protest. Lemmy thread discussing this.
I was hoping for some more automated and clean looking solution. But thanks anyway.
What about just not taking pictures or video of faces?
If you want to do some PR that appeals to people that aren't already on the left, then it's sometimes unavoidable.
I remember not being on the left. I didn't need to see faces to feel ways about stuff.
Especially if both sides are fucking masked!
Especially if both sides are fucking masked!
I'm not talking about the current situation in the US. I'm talking about e.g. protest in Europe which aren't necessarily as heated up as the protests in LA right now. That might have not come across, sorry.
It's just more friendly to non-radicalised folks if the sharepic of the local union don't show up in balaclavas.
Still, i remember before i was quite so radical, and i don't think that would have been true for me?
That's good for you, butedoesn't apply to everyone.
Okay, but if we're speaking for people who are presumably neither of us, then that's my best tool.
What did you think, when you first saw masked protestors?
I'm not really interested in this kind of discussion. I was asking for a tool, not for a discussion of wether or not to use that tool.
But if you're saying it's effective, was it effective on you? What was your experience when you were the target audience you're talking about?
I already saidethat I am not interested in this discussion. Ask the people in my org. It always comes up when we're doing some solidarity photo.
So you just want to endanger people... So your job is easier?
Are you a serial killer who ritually murders OSHA inspectors in your free time? That seems like it would ve like 5% less evil
How do I want to "endanger people" if I want to hide the faces of people in my org? WTF is wrong with you?
Okay so that's people making videos of themselves on purpose to associate their identities? And nobody who didn't opt in? Then why does any measure of caution apply? What am i missing?
What am i missing?
Basically every bit of context.
I asked about software to faceswap photos for when my org wants to publish a pic were everyone who is on it doesn't have to pixellate the faces, but rather faceswap the faces with other people (generated faces, historical figures, etc.).
I'd like to try that since everytime my org wants to take a photo (e.g. for showing international solidarity on social media), an argument arises of whether or not to pixellate the faces. Some people want their identities protected, other people think that pixellated faces damages public perception of the org.
How is that relating to anything you say?
The point of blurring your face is to not attach it to your identity. It works or it doesn't. That's the part I'm missing.
The point of blurring your face is to not attach it to your identity.
So is faceswapping
But if your face is blurred, what's the value of being on camera at all?
And if you're face swapping, why not just 'based on a true story' the whole thing?
No