A new Tiktok trend has sparked discussions about body image and racism and class bias embedded in beauty standards. Trends involve a virus filter that can change the appearance of a user to make it look bigger or thinner. Many videos have thinner laughs when filters make them look bigger, while others use larger effects as “motivation”. These videos are usually set to Doechii’s song “Anxiety”.
This is another example of AI-powered tools that are ideally used in ways that can enhance harmful beauty, and it sucks.
Tiktok criticizes young girls shopping in Sephora. They missed the point.
After extensive criticism of body shaming, remove filters from the platform. It originally appeared in Capcut, a video editing app owned by Tiktok. Although Tiktok told CNET that it had removed the template from Capcut, it still had access to a similar version of the filter. The company also told the BBC it is reviewing videos characterized by this effect, making it ineligible for recommendations and blocking teen accounts.
The top story of chaos
If you search for “chubby filter” you won’t get any results, but users solve this problem by searching for terms like “chubby filter”. According to CNET, the filter now includes a disclaimer that says: “You or someone you know has questions about body image, food, or exercise, be sure to know that your help is there and is not alone. If you feel comfortable. However, Mashable doesn’t see this disclaimer.
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Writer Rebecca Shaw summed up the issue in a post on X, commenting, “There’s an amaaazing new trend on TikTok where skinny girls use a filter to become ‘chubby’ and laugh at the results and everyone else laughs and it’s sooooooo funny and we definitely aren’t spiraling back down to pro-ana, death-to-fats era that damages every young woman.”
As cut, this fat shaming is nothing new – but that doesn’t make it harmful.
