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Epstein Files: X Users Are Asking Grok to 'Unblur' Photos of Children (www.bellingcat.com)
submitted 6 days ago by Beep@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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In the days after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) published 3.5 million pages of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, multiple users on X have asked Grok to “unblur” or remove the black boxes covering the faces of children and women in images that were meant to protect their privacy.

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[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

There was someone who reported that due to the incompetence of whitehouse staffers, some of the Epstein files had simply been "redacted" in ms word by highlighting the text black, so people were actually able to remove the redactions by turning the pdf back into word and removing the black highlighting to reveal the text.

Who knows if some of the photos might be the same issue.

[-] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 6 days ago

That's, not how images like png or jpgs work.

[-] unmagical@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 days ago

In the case of what wound up on Roman Numeral Ten (formerly twitter) that's correct, but given the actual PDF dump from the gov, if they just slapped an annotation on top of the image it'll be possible to remove it and reveal what's underneath.

[-] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 6 days ago

I didn't realise that they released the images as pdfs too.

[-] unmagical@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago

It was simpler than that. You can just copy the black highlighter text and paste it anywhere.

[-] klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 7 points 6 days ago

"Hackers used advanced hacking to unredact the Epstein files!" - Actual headline. The "hackers" did just Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, opens word processor, Ctrl+V

[-] bcgm3@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, opens word processor, Ctrl+V

DID YOU JUST DOWNLOAD A VIRUS ON MY KEYBOARD?

[-] klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 3 points 6 days ago

No regrets! runs away with all of your data in a comically large sack

this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2026
379 points (98.2% liked)

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