A facial recognition company is demanding the Washington Times retract and apologize for publishing a story claiming their technology identified members of antifa as being among the pro-Trump crowd that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.
The article in question said that the firm XRVision “used its software to do facial recognition of protesters and matched two Philadelphia Antifa members to two men inside the Senate.” The report cited a “retired military officer” who provided the information and said she or she “provided the photo match to The Times.”
XRVision, however, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that the report is “outright false, misleading, and defamatory,” and they are requesting the outlet “retract the current claims” and issue an apology. “XRVision didn’t generate any composites or detection imagery for the Washington Times nor for a “retired military officer” and did not authorize them to make any such representations.”
“Shortly after the rioting started, XRVision performed an analysis on the footage and identified several individuals,” the company said. “This information was shared with LEA. We concluded that two of individuals (Jason Tankersley and Matthew Heimbach), were affiliated with the Maryland Skinheads and the National Socialist Movements. These two are known Nazi organizations, they are not Antifa. The third individual identified (Jake Angeli) was an actor with some QAnon promotion history. Again, no Antifa identification was made for him either.”
Brian Della Rocca, a representative for XRVision, told the Washington Examiner that the two sides had been in touch but that there has been “no mention of a retraction,” despite the request. Hours after publication, the Washington Times directed the Washington Examiner to an update that was added to the story after it had been temporarily taken down.
A correction at the top of the article reads, “An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that XRVision facial recognition software identified Antifa members among rioters who stormed the Capitol Wednesday. XRVision did not identify any Antifa members. The Washington Times apologizes to XRVision for the error.”
The headline has been altered to say that “extremists” were identified via facial recognition, and the updated article included the following: “The Washington Times erroneously reported late Wednesday that facial recognition technology backed up that speculation and identified two Antifa members. In fact, XRVision has not identified any members of that far-left movement as being part of the attack.”
The report reverberated around the conservative media landscape on Wednesday night and was referenced by Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz on the House floor as Congress was certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. His speech occurred hours after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, fought with law enforcement, and forced an evacuation.
Hours after he encouraged a crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands to march on Capitol Hill, President Trump changed his tune and urged his supporters to go home peacefully, adding that he understands how they feel and that he loves them. Four people died in the chaos.
“The Washington Times has just reported some pretty compelling evidence from a facial recognition company showing that some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters,” Gaetz said to audible boos. “They were masquerading as Trump supporters and, in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group antifa.”
Congress was able to certify Biden’s victory early this morning, and Trump promised a peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 20.
Gaetz was not the only conservative who claimed that far-left antifa agitators were partaking in the chaos that ensued in the Capitol that left four people dead. Reps. Mo Brooks and Paul Gosar, both of whom voted to object to the certification of the Electoral College results.
“This has all the hallmarks of Antifa provocation,” Gosar wrote on Twitter. Brooks cautioned, “Don’t rush to judgment on assault on Capitol. Wait for investigation. All may not be (and likely is not) what appears. Evidence growing that fascist ANTIFA orchestrated Capitol attack with clever mob control tactics.”
Conservative commentators, including Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Newsmax’s Greg Kelly also speculated more broadly that a portion of the people who stormed the Capitol were outside agitators seeking to make them look bad, per the Washington Post.
