Instagram has decided to remove every single augmented reality (AR) filter that is designed to advertise, glorify and promote cosmetic surgery, following an outcry that these apps adversely affect the mental health of the users.
Effects that make the users look as if they have gone through lip or eyebrow injections, facelifts, filters, and other cosmetic applications will be affected by the ban. Research conducted on this has clearly shown that filters that alter faces of people and the way they look actually make them feel mentally worse about their appearance and aesthetic appeal.
Instagram, the Facebook-owned social media site has reiterated in an official statement that the ban was directed towards well being of people. A spokesman while commenting on the latest move reiterated that the management of the social media site wants their apps and filters to influence society positively and be sources of social welfare. Speaking on the subject, the spokesman further stated that they are reviewing their policies and amending them, wherever necessary, for positively impacting the society. Removal of the effects from the gallery related to plastic surgery is a part of this plan, which is designed to thwart the approval of any new effects that may harm people mentally or otherwise.
An Instagram app was introduced this year on Instagram, which allowed the users to create virtual effects of their faces with the help of customized face filters and animations that could be superimposed on videos as well as images. One of these filters was Plastica, which depicted the effects of intense cosmetic surgery on human faces.
Speaking on the latest decision, Daniel Mooney, the creator of the app stated while speaking to the BBC he had created the app FixMe as a critique of cosmetic surgery, to show people how uncouth and unglamorous the entire procedure is, with all those markings and bruising here and there.
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