Faces being blurred in protest images

ST. LOUIS, MO (KMOX) - The internet and social media sites are full of images from days of protests and unrest. 

Now some faces in those photos and videos are being blurred.

Some people are using technology to obscure faces and remove location information and other data from digital photos.  Some bloggers say it's a way to protect protestors from law enforcement investigation. 

Attorney Mark Sableman with Thompson Coburn handles media and privacy law issues.  He says blurring faces is not uncommon, "it's been a tradition in broadcast television for some time, to pixelate or blur out photographs of people who are marginal to what's going on."

Sableman does point out if you're in a public space anyone can take your picture.

A Chicago TV station faced criticism over the weekend when it posted a video that obscured the faces of men and women holding rifles as Black Lives Matter demonstrators walked by.  That video was pulled and later replaced with an unedited version, the station saying only that the story had been updated. 

Thankfully, some user provided the un-blurred version: https://t.co/uroxrQhXPz

— Joshua Phelps (@joshuaphelps93) June 6, 2020

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