, the popular mobile application that allows users to alter their appearance in photos through a variety of prefixed filters, has landed in hot water once again.
The app recently released a new 'ethnicity' feature, that allowed users to take a selfie, and see what they might look like if they were from a different ethnic background.
Notifications were pushed out to alert users of the new filters, that would allow them to see themselves as 'Asian, Black, Caucasian, and Indian'.
Users of the app immediately began speaking out about the filters, expressing their concerns that the filters were appropriative, offensive, and a modern form of blackface.
The push notification that was sent out to Faceapp users. Source: Twitter / @tyluh
The app has received in the past, regarding its 'Spark' filter. The filter told users that it would make them 'hotter' - more conventionally attractive - but received complaints after the filter simply appeared to lighten skin tone, so the user simply looked white.
UPDATE 11/08, 9:02AM:
Faceapp's CEO and founder, Yaroslav Goncharov, told SBS Australia, "The ethnicity change filters have been designed to be equal in all aspects. They don’t have any positive or negative connotations associated with them. They are even represented by the same icon. In addition to that, the list of those filters is shuffled for every photo, so each user sees them in a different order."
He also confirmed that the filters have now been removed from the app completely.
