The filter which Snapchat said it designed in the spirit of the late reggae star also modified facial features and darkened skin tone. As easy as you think it would be to create fun loving filters everyone will love, things have proven more hard for the social media platform.
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This isn’t the first time Snapchat has sparked controversy over filters. Despite being endorsed by the family, there were those who complained the filter was little more than blackface and overtly offensive. And while there may have been shades of grey in those cases, critics of the most recent filter say that a very definitive line has most definitely been crossed.
Messaging app Snapchat is engulfed in another racism storm after releasing a new “yellowface” filter, which morphed users’ faces into outrageous Asian caricatures. You know, the ones that ask you to “be thoughtful about what you Snap”, and that warn users not to “bother or make other people feel bad on objective”.
A Snapchat spokesman confirmed it was no longer available, adding that the lens was meant to be a playful take on anime characters. The good people over at Snapchat, it would seem, don’t quite understand the critique either. One imagines that if, at some point during the development process, one of Snapchat’s Asian or black employees had actually seen the company’s offensive filters, they might have spoken up.
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So Snap away, friends. As Venturebeat reporter Ken Yeung pointed out on Twitter, the filter has less in common with anime and much more closely resembles Mickey Rooney’s yellowface-d performance as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast At Tiffany’s.
