The founder of the viral FaceApp was forced to apologize after users criticized one of the filters for being racist.
The popular app, which promises to “transform your face using AI in just one tap” left many unhappy after the filter named “hot” appeared to whiten the skin.
So I downloaded this app and decided to pick the "hot" filter not knowing that it would make me white. It's 2017, c'mon guys smh#FaceApp pic.twitter.com/9U9dv9JuCm
— Shahquelle L. (@RealMoseby96) April 20, 2017
The app offers several face-morphing options like adding a smile to your selfie, making you look younger or older, or even swapping your gender, but it’s the filter that adds a glow to the skin tone that caused the racism storm.
Yaroslav Goncharov, the creator and CEO of FaceApp apologized for the “unfortunate side-effect” blaming AI for “set bias”. Goncharov wrote,
We are deeply sorry for this unquestionably serious issue…It is an unfortunate side-effect of the underlying neural network caused by the training set bias, not intended behavior.
The whitening filter is still available when you download FaceApp, but it was renamed from “hot” to “spark” in order to “exclude any positive connotation associated with it,” Goncharov said.
#faceapp isn't' just bad it's also racist…🔥 filter=bleach my skin and make my nose your opinion of European. No thanks #uninstalled pic.twitter.com/DM6fMgUhr5
— Terrance AB Johnson (@tweeterrance) April 19, 2017
Since I did my face reveal, I also did the face app thing, tell me what you think, also "hot" me is just me with lighter skin, so racist, 😛 pic.twitter.com/l2rrVobWyW
— Doughy (@_Doughy_) April 23, 2017
So this app is apparently racist as hell. But at least I'm sassy. #faceapp https://t.co/I0L4yWWXaV pic.twitter.com/v1ME8H8seP
— kung fu khary (@kharyrandolph) April 18, 2017
Launched in February, FaceApp went viral in the last several weeks. This is not the first time an app that modifies facial features has been attacked. In March Snapchat’s “Women’s Day” filters drew ire for lightening users’ skin and “sexualizing them”. Snapchat was also previously slammed for their “yellowface” and “Bob Marley” filters.
