FaceApp Debuts Racial Selfie Filters, Removes Them Amid Outcry

FaceApp had an overwhelming fail yesterday (August 9th) when it debuted racial selfie filters and then removed them hours later amid public condemnation. The photo editing app released what it called "ethnicity filters" to change someone's race in a photo to "Black," "Caucasian," "Asian" and "Indian." Critics quickly took to Twitter to slam the filters, but FaceApp defended them at first, saying, "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." However, the filters were eventually removed within hours. FaceApp also was blasted earlier this year for its "hot" filter, which lightened someone's skin tone, and it was also quickly deleted, with the company saying the whitening had been unintentional.