Russian trolls outing porn stars and prostitutes with neural network facial recognition app

A new app that uses a neural network combined with facial recognition software to help put names to faces in random photographs by scanning social network data is being used in Russia to identify and harass young women who have previously appeared in pornographic films. Trinity Digital, an app developer in Russia, released a free iOS and Android app called FindFace in February that enables people to identify people by taking a random photograph and using its neural network to figure out the person's name, location, occupation and other details. A neural network is a huge network of computers that are trained using computer algorithms to solve complex problems quickly, as well as improving artificial intelligence by gaining a deeper recognition and understanding of art and the world around us. On 9 April, members of a disreputable imageboard called Dvach, which is like the Russian cousin of 4chan, launched a campaign to deliberately try to locate and identify actresses who appear in pornography, as well as women listed on Intimcity, a Russian website advertising prostitution and escort services. Using FindFace, the Dvach users not only identified the women, but they also shared archived copies of their profiles on Vkontakte (the Russian version of Facebook) publicly online and repeatedly spammed the families of the women letting them know that they had been outed as porn stars and prostitutes.