Web Hits: Brian Williams’ war stories, Facebook goes deep, and Jim Kenney tweets

DeepFace sounds like it should be the pseudonym of a Hollywood bad guy, the villain in a high-tech action adventure where invisible corporate overlords strip us all of our privacy using the Internet.

But as NewsWorks’ social media strategist Amy Quinn explains to NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller, it’s just the slightly creepy-sounding name for Facebook’s slightly creepy-sounding facial-recognition software. 

DeepFace reportedly boasts an almost human ability to recognize and tag users in photos, a functionality already in some use, like the prompts that come up urging you to tag yourself in those pics from your cousin’s baby shower.

DeepFace draws on the billions of photos contained within Facebook and offers users the choice to tag themselves in strangers’ pics. In human speak: Say you ditched work Tuesday to hang out at the Franklin Institute with the new Sixers mascot (whose name is also Franklin because … Philadelphia). When the Franklin Institute, or the Sixers, or any other person who was there and took photos at the event posts them to Facebook, the service will attempt to tag everyone it recognizes in those photos. Including you. 

Users will still have to approve any tag before it appears publicly, but it’s worth checking your account settings this week. Look under Settings –> Timeline and Tagging –>> Who sees tag suggestions … and set it to NONE if you want to stay in stealth mode. 

Brian Williams wouldn’t be the first high-profile newsman taken down by the Internet, but it’s tough to know just yet whether his career will survive the revelation that his war stories were more like fish stories. 

It’s a familiar cycle by now, where the Internet peanut gallery becomes an angry mob, the guilty party is subjected to public inquiry followed by heartfelt apology followed by … well, the next step is where it gets interesting. Politicians often resign, entertainment stars sometimes head to rehab or other unspecified “treatment.” Right now, Williams is on a leave of absence, staying silent while NBC investigates. 

And finally, if you haven’t been following now-former Councilman Jim Kenney on Twitter up to now, you’ve probably missed the very best parts. After years of city boostering, chewing out Gov. Christie and snarking on Mayor Nutter, Brian Hickey reports on NinetyNine that Kenney’s mayoral campaign team will handle at least some of his tweets from now on.

The campaign assures us Kenney has not been banned from tweeting and will still participate, but something tells us the goofy, combative, purely Philly @JimFKenney we loved will exist now only in our caches.