Snapchat's face-mapping filters empower sexual assault survivors to tell their own stories

While most people who use Snapchatuse itto exchangeselfies or pictures of food and otherminutiae of theirdaily life, a journalist in India has found a more serious and meaningful applicationof thesocial tool.

One of the most popular Snapchat features these days is a face-mapping filter that allows users tochoose from a variety of virtual masks that are superimposed on top of their facial features when they take a photo or video.

The filters are usually little more than a goofy way to share content on the socialplatform, but forYusuf Omar, amobile editor withtheHindustan Times, they seemed like an idealway toconcealthe identity of young survivors of sexual assault, whom in India cannot be identified and are often vilified.

Omar, 27, got the idea last month whilecoveringtheClimb Against Sexual Abuse,a hike up theChamundiHills inMysore,India. He filmed the event on his mobile phone butwanted to ensure theyoung women he was interviewing had an opportunity to share theirstories while remaining anonymous.

He gave the women his phone and taught them how to useSnapchat.

"I initially built a bond with them, using the funny filters on myself first and then with them,"Omarsaid. "I think that warmed them up.

"On a very basic level, the sexual abuse survivors were empowered to make a decision as to which filters they were going to use to cover their face. And that also gave them a sense that they could trust me as a filmmaker."

'Eyes are the window to the soul'

Althoughthe young women were not familiar with Snapchat, they did know how to take selfies and videos, which is the primary function of the app.

Once the girls felt comfortable,Omar said,he gave them his phone and walked away.

It wasn't likeI was waving a bigbroadcast camerain their faceIt was veryintimate ... I wasn't evenpart of that process.- YusufOmar, journalist for Hindustan Times

"It wasn't like I was waving a bigbroadcast camera in their face and lights and a tripod and a boom mic asking them in the mostintimidating way to share the most private events of ... their entire life,"Omarsaid.

"It was veryintimate ... I wasn't evenpart of that process."

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In the resulting videos, the women, their faces disguised using the Snapchat filter of a fire-breathing dragon for maximal facecoverage, are seen relaying their personal experiences of sexual assault.

"I was five years old when it happened," says one women in the video.

"They tortured me at home and never let me go out," saysanother.

Omar first posted the videos on hisSnapchat story and lateron the Hindustan TimesFacebook page.

For the journalist, one ofthe most striking effects of the filter is theenlargingof the women's eyes.

"I think that is important because they always say that the eyes are the window to the soul, right?" Omar said.

"It almost, in some kind of ironic way, humanizes the story."

Changing the culture of victim-blaming

Humanizing the storiesof sexual assault survivors is something that does not happenoftenin India.

A victim-blaming mentality is common amongsome prominent politiciansand in somenews media.

In 2014, Asha Mirje,leader of the National Congress Party, said that sexual assaults occur because of a "woman's clothes, her behaviour and her being in inappropriate places."

In its coverage of the 2015 gang rape of a woman in Bangalore, The Hindu newspaper ran the headline,"She Didn't Heed Friend'sAdvice," insinuating that the rape was the victim's fault.

Another politician,Botsa Satyanarayana, blamed the victim of the notorious 2012 Delhibus gang rape.

"The woman should have thought twice before boarding the suspicious private bus that night," he said. "Though the incident was condemnable, she should also have behaved keeping in mind the situation."

Omar says hisSnapchatinterviewmethod is oneway to shift the narrative back to the survivors so they can share theirexperiences without being afraid.

The resulting videos end up being "far more personal" than conventional interviews,Omarsaid.

UsingSnapchatasa platform to interviewsurvivors also creates an overall sense of empathy and understanding among those who view the videos, he said.

"Everybodyknows thesefilters.They are familiar with the process," said Omar. "It allows audiences to relate to the sexual abuse survivors, as well."

Face-mapping security

Although some filters appear to do a good job of concealing identities, there is uncertainty around how secure they actually are and if they can be removed to reveal the face behind the virtual mask.

"I absolutely wouldn't have any expertise in whether people can or can't cut behind the filters and see layers," Omar said.

"Generally, to have built-in layers would require an immensely big file," he said. And Snapchatimage and video files are tiny.

Snapchat did not respond to CBC's request for an interview.

On its website, the companymentions that it uses an "object recognition" algorithm, which is used to "understand the general nature of things that appear in an image."

Snapchat says this algorithmis not the same as facial recognition and that thefilters "are used to recognize faces in general, (but) they can't recognize a specific face."

'A really powerful tool'

The sexual assault storywasnot the first time thatOmar used a mobile phone and Snapchat in his reporting.

Last year, he filmed the Climb Against Sexual Abuse in South Africausing his iPhone.

Storytelling through Snapchat filters

8 years ago

Duration 0:19

Indian journalist Yusuf Omar talks about how he uses Snapchats face-mapping filters to tell powerful stories.

"Ithink mobile journalism tells sensitive stories with more dignity than anyother camera that you could carry," he said. "It's farless imposing, it's far more discreet, it's far more intimate, and people often forget it's even there."

Omar has even done an entire undercoverinvestigative storyondrug dealing in the Punjabusing only Snapchat. For him, the app is a not just a simple social platform;it is a way to create content with meaning.

"Snapchat is often looked at in a very juvenile manner,[but] behind that is actually a really powerful tool," he said.

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