Goodbye to perfect faces on social media. From Tuesday 14 January, Half has begun to officially eliminate a good part of the filters created through augmented reality, including the beauty filters. Those who, thanks to artificial intelligence, are able to change physical features with cosmetic surgery effects.
Beauty filters
A topic that over the years has raised several controversies and pushed several influencers and brand owners to take sides against the excessive use of filters capable of improving images and faces on social media. Considered a ploy that distances one from reality and which particularly affects the mental health of those who use it. Certainly an important step to protect young people from the risks linked to images of artificial beauty with unattainable standards.
To close is, in particular, the platformSpark‘, born in 2017 which allowed creators to create filters or masks of all kinds: from dog ears to thin and defined cheekbones. This decision by Meta has been repeatedly associated with that of TikTokthe Chinese platform which, at the end of November, decided to ban beauty filters for minor users. In reality, according to some creators, this is not the reason that pushed the company Mark Zuckerberg to counter the creation of beauty filters. The reason is not to be found in ethical principles, but in economic and corporate interests.
Aida, Content and Filter Creator
She is convinced of it Letizia Egaddiin art Aida CreatorContent and Filter Creator, who has been working for the Meta platform since 2020: “Several accounts with tens of thousands of followers – he tells Adnkronos – are spreading fake news. They claim that Instagram made this decision for reasons related to unattainable beauty. This is totally false – says Aida -. The reasons are corporate, strategic and economic, they are simply reorganizing Meta’s corporate budget.”
The Content filter explains that all filters will be deleted except those owned by Instagram or purchased by Meta, and among these some beauty and distorting filters still appear.
“We are deeply grateful to the community of creators, companies and other key stakeholders who have been part of Meta Spark’s journey,” underlines the official statement published by Meta, parent company of Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp. Aida believes that “seeing this project die is heartbreaking. Meta, with the possibility of creating filters, gave us Content Filter many opportunities, such as creating a profession from scratch that couldn’t even exist in 5 years. But it’s right this way, to give opportunities to others.”
And regarding the future of Meta, Egaddi assumes that part of the budget removed from the filters will be invested in the future of artificial intelligence: “It leaves room for new frontiers of augmented reality. Such as, for example, the Orion Smart glasses, glasses that will integrate augmented reality, and therefore filters, directly into the object”.
