Meta has officially announced that all third-party augmented reality (AR) filters will no longer be available on its platforms, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, starting in January 2025. This move means that over two million user-created filters, many of which are viral beauty filters, will disappear from these apps. Filters, particularly on Instagram, have become a central feature, but this shift is raising questions about its broader implications.
Instagram filters, especially those focused on beautifying the user's appearance, have become extremely popular. Many of these were created by users through the Meta Spark Studio, allowing anyone to generate and share filters on the platform. These filters have not only fueled creativity but have also been linked to negative effects, especially regarding mental health and body image issues, particularly in young women.
Studies have shown that beauty filters, which can alter facial features like shrinking the nose or enlarging the lips, contribute to a distorted sense of self. Many young users feel pressured to conform to unrealistic beauty standards promoted by these filters, which often lead to feelings of inadequacy and self-esteem issues.
In theory, Meta’s decision to remove the vast majority of beauty filters from Instagram and its other platforms could mark a significant shift in how beauty standards are portrayed on social media. However, the removal comes at a point where the damage may already be irreversible. Many argue that this move is more likely a surface-level solution, much like the newly introduced special teen accounts on Instagram, where parents can monitor their children's activities.
Meta’s actions in this regard seem like a band-aid solution, especially when considering the years of encouragement and promotion of filter use. The company has allowed this technology to flourish, making it hard to undo the deeply ingrained culture of beauty filters among its users.
Given the popularity of AR filters on Instagram, the question arises: why is Meta choosing to remove them now? Officially, Meta claims that it is shifting its focus to other company priorities and investments. In April, the company announced plans to invest between $35-40 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and it appears that the AR filter technology is being deprioritized in favor of AI development.
Moreover, Meta seems to be pulling AR technology in-house, meaning that while third-party filters will disappear, Instagram's official filters will remain. However, this library of Meta-created filters is much smaller, and these filters do not include the popular beautifying effects that have dominated the platform.
While the removal of third-party filters may suggest that beauty filters are being phased out, this is not the first time Meta has attempted to remove certain filters. In 2019, Meta briefly banned “surgery” filters, which mimicked the effects of cosmetic surgery. However, the ban was short-lived and quickly reversed after backlash and an intervention from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The upcoming removal of third-party filters will see the disappearance of sophisticated beauty-enhancing filters. Although this could seem like progress in addressing the issue of unrealistic beauty standards, it is unlikely to have the desired impact. When surgery filters were removed in 2019, users quickly found ways to access them elsewhere, signaling that the demand for these filters remains high.
With the removal of popular beauty filters, many users are likely to turn to alternative platforms to access similar technologies. The practice of re-posting filtered images across multiple platforms may become more prevalent. On Instagram, when a filter is applied, a watermark links to the filter creator. This feature helps indicate whether an image has been altered.
However, users have already found ways to bypass this watermark by downloading and re-uploading their filtered images. The removal of beauty filters on Instagram will likely push this covert practice into the mainstream, making it even harder to distinguish between filtered and unfiltered images.
Newer platforms like TikTok have taken beauty filters to the next level. TikTok’s viral “Bold Glamour” filter, for example, uses artificial intelligence to create hyper-realistic beauty effects that blend seamlessly with the user's features. Unlike standard AR filters, which apply a mask-like overlay, AI-AR filters merge with the user's face to create an entirely new, often unattainable, beauty standard.
As Instagram users lose access to third-party filters, many will likely shift to these more sophisticated AI filters, which are harder to detect and can be used across multiple platforms. The lack of transparency that comes with these filters poses a significant challenge in terms of visual literacy, making it harder for users to discern what is real and what is digitally enhanced.
Meta’s decision to remove third-party AR filters is unlikely to solve the problems associated with filter use on social media. Users are deeply accustomed to using filters to enhance their appearance, and as a result, they will likely seek out other platforms that offer these tools. By removing filters and their accompanying watermark feature, Instagram may only make the issue harder to manage.
At a time when generative AI images and filters are becoming more prevalent, and media literacy remains low, the removal of beauty filters feels like a missed opportunity to address the broader issue of unrealistic beauty standards. For now, it seems the genie is already out of the bottle, and Meta’s actions may be too little, too late.