SURVIVORS of sexual abuse in India have turned to video sharing app Snapchat as a way of sharing their traumatic experiences, without revealing their identity.

Using filters such as the dragon and panda to conceal the entire face — Yusuf Omar, mobile editor of the Hindustan Times, used the app as part of The Climb Against Sexual Abuse on people he interviewed. The CASA walk, which is an organisation hoping to break the silence around sexual abuse, had 50 young people climb 1000 steps to the Chamundi Hills in Mysore, India.

In an interview with journalism.co.uk, Omar said he used the filter on victims as a way of letting them share their stories while still having a sense of safety. He said the variety of filters can have “serious applications of journalism” because it encourages interviewees to give a raw and emotional interview, while keeping their faces concealed.

“I thought there must be a more accessible way to disguise someone’s face using new technology, and Snapchat was just that,” he said.

“Recording with a mask gave them the sense of legitimacy and security that I wasn’t going to be able to show their face, as opposed to trusting a journalist saying ‘Yes, we will blur you afterwards,’ so they felt empowered and in control of the narrative.

“Using the inside camera, they felt like they were looking in a mirror ...

“They weren’t telling their story to me or a camera, they were just looking at themselves in a phone and recalling their experiences — and there was something so personal and sincere about that.”

As part of the interview process, Omar left some people on their own to voice their experience without being interviewed by another person. Some of the girls especially would apply the filter and talk about their story openly, while their faces were concealed by a filter.

Once the videos were captured, they were distributed on Omar’s account. He hopes to use the feature for other interviews on the topic in the future.

“Eyes are the window to the soul, and this particular dragon filter [that two of the girls chose] actually exaggerated them, and we could still clearly see their expressions,” he said.

According to the video shot by Omar, a rape happens every 22 minutes in India — with many going unreported. Some of the survivors who spoke on the Snapchat video had been involved in sexual trafficking and even acid attacks. The full video can be viewed on the Hindustan Times Facebook page.