Instagram bans some selfies filters
Instagram is banning filters for selfies that show how users would look with plastic surgery because of concerns about their effect on mental health.
The Facebook-owned social media application will soon remove its photo filters that show how user selfies would look with fuller lips, taller cheekbones and more elegant facial features.
Since then, Instagram removed its “Fix Me” filter, which draws marker marks on users’ faces to point out areas in which a plastic surgeon could do plastic works, such as lifts and folds. Users will also not be able to access their “Plastic” filter, which gives someone an eyebrow or larger lips.
SOPHIE TURNER HAS NO MERCY ON ANYONE. 100% BITCH™ pic.twitter.com/86v2IJ76BI
— spooky chiara (@lovelysophiet) October 8, 2019
Spark AR, the company that creates Instagram facial filters, said it will remove “all the effects associated with plastic surgery” from the Instagram Effects Gallery, it announced in a Facebook post last week.
“We want the effects of Spark AR to be a positive experience,” the company said in the Facebook post, adding that it would reevaluate its policies “in terms of well-being.”
Studies suggest a correlation between the use of Instagram among young women and a negative body image and low self-esteem. A study by psychologists at University College London published in April found evidence that women and girls are more likely to want to undergo plastic surgery if they spend a lot of time on social media.
Instagram has become more filtered with the effect that the application can have on mental and physical health. Last month, the social media application said it would begin restricting children from seeing publications that promote and encourage the purchase of detox tea, diet pills, appetite suppressants and other health supplements with unhealthy claims of weight loss . Now, Instagram content reviewers will be able to report a post if they think it violates their policy, and influencers can no longer sell weight loss products with miraculous claims and a link to a discount code for fans to buy.