Instagram filters with a ‘plastic surgery effect’ are to be removed from the platform. The removal of the filters – which make users appear as if they have undergone cosmetic procedures – was announced by Spark AR, the augmented reality platform behind the effects.
The company claimed it would be removing “all effects associated with plastic surgery” from its instagram effect gallery after reevaluating its existing filters “as they relate to wellbeing”.
It follows a study published in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery last year which found digital face filters were contributing to ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’.
Patients are increasingly seeking out surgery to help them appear “like the filtered versions of themselves”, dermatology professor Dr Neelan Vashi explained, with plastic surgery filters likely to be most harmful among young users.
