These are bad times for what promised to be the application of the year and that is Snapchat, in addition to fighting against the heavy blow caused by the departure of Instagram Stories , has been accused of being racist for using a filter, shall we say, not very politically correct.
Snapchat has removed the damn "racist" filter after all the uproar formed by thousands of users on social networks who called it as "Yellowface".
The lens in question modified facial features by puffing out the cheeks, slitting the eyes, and protruding the teeth in such a way that, it was obviously an unfortunate nod to the characteristic traits of the Asian community.
Social media users were in a rage, not hesitating for a second to call Snapchat racist and the filter as a "disgusting" caricature of East Asians .
After the reaction of users, Snapchat assured in an official statement that the intention was to imitate manga or anime drawings and Of course, in no case encourage racism or offend anyone. After communicating his regret, the filter was eliminated along with the promise not to add it or any other similar one again in the future.
And it is not the first time that the application has had a run-in with this type of accusation.In April, a special filter dedicated to Bob Marley and the anniversary of his birth, also raised eyebrows. Users complained that the filter applied black color to the skin as well as dreadlocks to the hair. At the time, Snapchat said the filter was intended simply to pay tribute to Bob Marley.
One of the things that most public have given to Snapchat is precisely this section of facial filters. For some time now brands have been entering these filters, thus creating a new and experimental advertising model. Food and drink brands, film and even musical producers They have had numerous filters in recent months that added a plus to their most profitable advertising campaigns. So far so good, but the case of this filter did not involve anything, a manga movie was not being promoted whose protagonist has Asian features, and that is why it's been a blunder and a pretty heavy setback for the app, which serves its purpose to normalize racial bias.
Perhaps in Spain or Europe racism against the Asian community is not as strong as it is in the United States, where precisely the application has the largest number of usersand it is precisely there that complaints from anonymous people such as famous stars began.
Let's hope that Snapchat is careful not to offend anyone next time who wants to pay tribute and continue on the right path he was on up to now and that has made it one of the applications with the highest number of new users per day.
