Instagram recently announced that they would be banning all filters that depict or could be seen to promote plastic surgery, amid concerns they could be damaging to user’s mental health and wellbeing. Augmented reality filters that give the appearance of fillers and facelifts are among those that will be removed from the app.
Research has found that face-changing filters can have a negative impact on self-esteem and cause users to feel worse about the way they look. A survey conducted by The Royal Society for Public Health found Instagram to be one of the social media platforms for young people’s mental wellbeing, stating that “social media may be fuelling a mental health crisis.”
“We’re re-evaluating our policies – we want our filters to be a positive experience for people,” a spokesperson for Instagram said.
“While we’re re-evaluating our policies, we will remove all effects from the gallery associated with plastic surgery, stop further approval of new effects like this and remove current effects if they’re reported to us.”
In August 2019, Instagram released an update that allowed users to create their own custom effects, animations and filters. During this time, many popular filters such as Plastica and Fix Me were added to the effects gallery.
Here at HD Brows, we’re delighted that Instagram have taken this step. Earlier this year, we launched our Love Yourself. More campaign, where we encouraged everyone to love what makes them unique. As part of this, we vowed to end retouching on our campaign imagery. You can read more about the campaign here.
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