No Filter France: Social media influencers coming clean with their filters?

From giving you blue eyes to a “blackface” filter (yes something like that actually exists on Instagram that people used to glorify fair skin), filters on social media giants like Snapchat, Meta, and Instagram are the subject of much controversy almost all the time. 

In France, the controversy has worsened to the point that now the local government might make it compulsory for social media influencers to come clean with the filters they use. 

So, what is this anti-filter bill?

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire proposed a bill last week to “help limit the destructive psychological effects of filters on internet users’ self esteem”. 

Who gets affected?

Influencers, in particular, are bound to be concerned as if this bill becomes a law, they might generate negative backlash for coming clean for even the slightest of filter-induced touch-ups. 

Not just the people, even particular face-editing apps might face a slump in business in French territories. For instance, millions of edited images are exported daily from FaceTune all over the world. 

But for advocates of a truer, less augmented self on social media, this new law might be good news. Reports suggest that females are more susceptible to use filters than males given that using a filter has become a stereotypically “female” activity among many Gen-Z groupings. 

For instance, a 2021 report by Dove Self-Esteem Project showed that a shocking 85% of girls have applied filters or used an app to change the way they look in their photos by the time they are 13. 

Another finding was that 67% of girls try to change, or hide, at least one body part before posting a photo of themselves to social media.

If the bill gets passed, French surgeons might also be able to take a breather as cosmetic doctors all over the world get frustrated when their client asks them to given “Snapchat-level” results. In fact, plastic surgeon Dr Tijon Esho also came up with the term “Snapchat dysmorphia” in 2018 to address this crisis. 

Not the first time for French government 

It turns out that back in 2017, the French government had a similar crackdown on digital beauty-enhancing tools. The parliament had moved to make it mandatory for models to add a “retouched photograph” tag in case they had altered any part of their body in a photograph. This however never became a law.