FRANCE 24 has been awarded France’s prestigious FIGRA prize for an in-depth documentary on New York-based tech company Clearview AI and its work to identify and collect the faces of every single person on the planet. FRANCE 24 also received a special FIGRA mention for its documentary on Ukrainian resistance fighters.
For the 57-minute-long Your face is ours: The dangers of facial recognition software, FRANCE 24 reporters Roméo Langlois and Jessica Le Masurier were awarded FIGRA’s human rights prize on June 1. The documentary, produced in collaboration with Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism and filmed on three continents, looks at how Clearview AI is amassing a huge database of individual human faces. In all, Clearview AI plans to collect some 100 billion images in its database – 14 for every person on the planet.
Although the company claims the database will serve as a force for good, identifying spies and criminals, it could potentially also be used for mass surveillance and profiling should it fall into the wrong hands.
More than 70 documentaries competed in the 31 edition of the week-long FIGRA international festival held in Douai in northern France which ended on Sunday.
