FaceApp forced to pull 'racist' filters that allow 'digital blackface'

Popular AI-powered selfie program FaceApp was forced to pull new filters that allowed users to modify their pictures to look like different races, just hours after it launched it. The app, which initially became famous for its features that let users edit images to look older or younger, or add a smile, launched the new filters around midday on Wednesday. They allowed a user to edit their image to fit one of four categories: Caucasian, Asian, Indian or Black. Users rapidly pointed out that the feature wasn't particularly sensitively handled: technology site The Verge described it as "tantamount to a sort of digital blackface, 'dressing up' as different ethnicities", while TechCruch said the app "seems to be getting a little too focused on races rather than faces". The company initially released a statement arguing that the "ethnicity change filters" were "designed to be equal in all aspects". "They don't have any positive or negative connotations associated with them," the company's chief executive Yaroslav Goncharov said.