It sure is bold.
TikTok’s new “Bold Glamour” AI filter has people ticked off, declaring it should “should be illegal” since the hyperrealistic effect is just too filtered.
Appalled users are taking to the app to denounce the terrifying technology — which already has nearly 119 million mentions on the platform — and warn of the “beauty” filter’s possible harmful effects.
The new scarily-realistic filter using artificial intelligence to create a full-face makeup look doesn’t seem to glitch or appear fake, many users noted, and some claim the heavily-altered results are leading to mental health issues and body dysmorphia.
“DO NOT USE THIS FILTER,” content creator Joanna Kenny captioned a video of herself using the scandalous setting.
“I don’t want to say this about myself but I actually look ugly when I take this filter off,” the British influencer admitted in the clip. “I was happy with the way I looked until I tried this. These filters have to stop.”
Kenny explained that the filter “scares” her and has brought back some traumatic thoughts about her appearance.
“I’ve done a lot of work to unlearn that I owe prettiness to anyone,” she added. “I don’t think my brain knows how to deal with looking like this one minute [she said with the filter on] and then this [she said removing the filter] the next.”
Ophelia, known online as @shoelover99, claimed the beauty filter can “mess with” people’s body dysmorphia and self-esteem as it negatively impacts “impressionable young girls'” ideas of beauty.
“I don’t like this,” she said bluntly while showing herself with and without the filter. “Sure I look beautiful, but I look beautiful without this damn thing… I don’t know what the hell I look like, but I don’t even look like me.”
Celebrities including Charli XCX and Katherine Heigl have also posted videos using the freaky filter.
“Ummm….I hate this b–ch #boldglamourfilter is not for me,” Heigl wrote in a video caption.
“I just woke up, this is not what I look like,” Kelly Strack said in a TikTok video of herself with the “Bold Glamour” filter on. “This should be illegal.”
Others have expressed their gratitude that “beauty” filters did not exist when they were younger.
Face filters first came out in 2015 when Snapchat released “Lenses,” which allowed users to vomit rainbows or snap a picture looking like a cute puppy dog.
Filters have since evolved as technology has advanced. Several social media sites, including Instagram and Facebook, have since created “beauty” filters that transform a person’s face to appear airbrushed, chiseled and completely done up with makeup.
While this filter may be the most recent and possibly most realistic filter to cause outrage, social media users have been noting the dangers of “beauty” filters for years.
Dr. Matthew Schulman, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City, coined the term “Snapchat Dysmorphia” in 2018 to describe the rising phenomenon of using filtered selfies as inspiration for plastic surgery.
“There’s an issue with losing perspective on what you actually look like, and it’s not something we talk about much,” Renee Engeln, professor of psychology at Northwestern University, and author of “Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women,” told the Huffington Post.
“It’s not enough [to] have to compare yourself to these perfected images of models, but now you’ve got this daily comparison of your real self to this intentional or unintentional fake self that you present on social media. It’s just one more way to feel like your falling short every day,” Engeln added.
Meta seemingly attempted to crack down on this increasingly worrying issue in 2019 and banned all filters that allow people to look as though they’ve undergone plastic surgery over concerns about their impact on mental health.
But even without filters, body dysmorphia is on the rise. A disturbing study released in 2020 found a rise in feelings of dysmorphia brought on by staring at your own face through the lens of a computer camera all day, which experts dubbed “Zoom Dysmorphia.”
As these mental health disorders persist, Gen Z is booking cosmetic procedures more now than ever and the CDC recently warned that teens feel more hopeless and suicidal than ever.
“So glad these filters existed only after my prefrontal cortex fully developed,” Alexandria Morgan confessed online.