Well, looks like it’s time to say good-bye to those Instagram face filters that show you what you’d look like with fuller lips and a sleeker nose. In an attempt to prioritize users’ well-being, the social-media platform will soon get rid of all filters with plastic-surgery-like effects.
Last week, Spark AR, the company behind Instagram’s face filters, announced in a Facebook post that the platform will be removing “all effects associated with plastic surgery” from the Instagram Effect Gallery, as well as postponing the approval of any new effects that could fall in that category. No, this doesn’t mean that you will no longer have access to filters that turn you into a puppy or give you remarkably long eyelashes. Instead, this policy change will likely target user-created face filters, such as the popular “Plastica” filter, which gives you an instant brow lift and augmented lips, or “Fix Me,” the already-deleted filter that decorated your face with presurgery pen markings that read “lift” and “fix me.” (Not good!)
“We want Spark AR effects to be a positive experience,” reads the post, “and are re-evaluating our existing policies as they relate to well-being.”
This isn’t the first step Instagram has taken in an attempt to demonstrate its commitment to users’ mental health. Just last month, the social-media platform implemented new restrictions for posts that promote weight-loss products and cosmetic procedures. (Instagram has had a larger issue with the latter: In 2017, researchers found that a significant portion of posts that advertised plastic surgery weren’t posted by board-certified plastic surgeons.)
Though the face-filter policy change seems well-intentioned, some users aren’t thrilled by it. “Omggg leave us alone,” one woman commented under Spark AR’s Facebook post. “And give back what we ask for! Chronological timeline on instagram.”
