Instagram bans plastic surgery filters

On the 18th of October, Spark AR, the Facebook company that is responsible for most filters on the Instagram effects gallery, released a statement on their Facebook that they would be removing all filters associated with plastic surgery from Instagram and postponing approval of new ones. 

These plastic surgery filters make your face more lifted, your lips fuller, and nose slimmer. Anyone can create filters on Facebook’s Spark AR Studio for Instagram and Facebook. 

“I honestly don’t mind the filters at all. They all look like a Bratz doll face to me. I don’t understand why people are so upset about the filters, if you don’t like it, don’t use it,” freshman Dahlia M. said.

The ban was to promote well being. According to an editorial done by scientific journal JAMA, many plastic surgery clients request “fuller lips, bigger eyes, or a thinner nose” so they look like the filters.

“So first I was like this looks so bad but then I kept going back to the picture over and over and I found myself asking my sister if I would look better with lip injections,” freshman Sarah Bakhtiar said.

According to another study done by JAMA Facial Plastic surgery excessive use of filters can cause body dysmorphic disorder. BDD is a mental illness where someone obsesses over flaws in their appearance, there are over 200,000 cases in the US each year.

“I don’t think Instagram did the right thing because some people just want to use the filters for fun but  I think it would be better for the people that have self esteem issues,” freshman Asia Pham said.