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Snapchat Faces An Outcry Against 'Whitewashing' Filters (mashable.com)
Last month Snapchat was thrown under the bus for a feature that many found downright racist. The photo-sharing app had added a face-altering filter that made users look like Bob Marley. Less than a month to it, Snapchat is getting blasted over another controversial feature. Several users are reporting about a "whitewash" filter that aims to "beautify" their looks. Mashable reports: Users of the app have noticed that many of the face-altering filters "whitewash." Upset Snapchatters point to the flower crown filter and the beautifying filter, both of which seem to lighten skin and eyes and contour the face to make one's chin and nose appear smaller. Since the debut, and subsequent popularity, of the Coachella-inspired filter, Snapchat users have taken to forums to voice their disproval with the app.
stuff that doesn't matter
really??? if you dont like a filter.... dont use it!!! What is so complicated here?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
No one cares. This affects nobody in a substantial way. It's just a bunch of whiny SJWs.
yeah... "snapchat users"... not just rival shills signing up to complain about anything they can think of.
you're all idiots.
Brightness sliders are also racist. I demand you remove brightness sliders from all photo editing apps, monitors, TVs, and operating systems.
Lately it seems there are entirely too many people with entirely too much free time to sit around being offended by the most insignificant and banal shit. Don't these people work, or have anything else better to do with their time?
People find light skin and white features attractive. Every single dating site and large scale poll confirms this.
Any idea how much money is spent in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean on bleaching creams?
Just saying...
I take this news article as a sign of success in governance.
The people aren't worried about shelter from the elements.
Or invasion by foreign barbarians from foreign lands.
Or plagues sweeping through their city-state.
Or starvation due to the blight destroying their one food crop.
They're complaining about: snapchat filters
These people have it so good, that's all they've got to complain about. Lucky them!
Hey everybody it's Social Justice Wednesday!
Reply to this thread if you genuinely give a fuck about Snapchat's filters and believe this topic belongs on Slashdot.
There is nothing racist about this at all. The people who are prone to things such as racism are the very same people who equate this to racism using the same fallacies and poor thinking that themselves gave rise and continue to give rise to real racism. You have to be careful with sensitivity. There's being insensitive and being too sensitive. These whiners fall into the latter category. The best way to deal with them is to ignore them and get on with their lives. As everyone else has the common sense to say, if they don't like this feature, they don't have to use it.
and you have to point it all out!
True, but then again, so is learning how to post your comment under the right story.
wrong forum that post is 8 down from this one
have a link https://news.slashdot.org/stor...
You can be orange and it'll be yuuuuuge.
I still have no idea how people can post their comments in the wrong thread.
Can I get a blackdick feature?
Or more precisely, biased against certain pigmentations that appear on certain racial groups.
So for all the people who just say, eh, what's the problem, the real question is, why do you think they chose certain parameters for their filter?
Now maybe you think this won't be a problem, but maybe it will.
What HP did wasn't racist. It's simple physics, in that darker colors are harder to pick up due to decreased contrast.
This original story is almost a month old.
...to identify people I hope I never have to talk to.
From TFA:
"The whitewashing snapchat filters are making me internalise Eurocentric beauty standards(I've avoided doing this until now)&it needs to STOP"
Please Lord, let me never meet this person.
-Styopa
no...that wasnt racist either. can we just stop with the labeling of everything as racist? it has literally made the word useless
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
When did the term "whitewash" start meaning racist and stop referring to censorship or covering up of the unsavory? The English language is great at coming up with new words,we need to stop repurposing old terms with well defined usage.
horror vacui
Who knew he was a developer?
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
I used to use Adobe Photoshop and Gimp to touch-up photographs and now with the help of these fine upstanding individuals I now realize the err of my ways and that I was racist when trying to touch-up photographs and pictures. When I go to get my photo taken for class pictures or with a professional photographer and they offer filters to improve the images from blemishes, etc I am promoting racism. I just cant believe how well all these racist things have been hidden from me all my life!! ...and if you believe that I have some swamp land in the Mojave desert I can sell you on the cheap...
One word, Idiocracy...
I installed it 14 months ago to speak with someone for its... intended use so to speak.
We used it for day to day communication for nearly a year I would say, it became a misery of an App.
Android version has bugs which haven't changed in 14 months, despite bug reports from me and more than 1 (flash focus bug, black screen bug)
I contacted them and asked them to add an option of 'trusted snappers' which works in inverse, all your text / chat is PERMANENT and only optional stuff disappears.
Nope, nothing, so you either 'hold' the text down to lock it as you type it out (if you remember) or you risk the receiver missing your once only messages because the cunt of an application either crashes or 'black screen bugs' them so they open it but can't see the text, but it's marked as read and of course, deleted.
I got into arguments with people for not replying to things I had apparently read and hadn't. It's a really poorly coded piece of shit and I am glad to be rid of it.
I was reluctant to switch to whatsapp or viber but I've done so for whats app and I have to say, it's pretty well designed and I'm happy with it. Especially the web client option.
Long story short, gotta be harsh here, but fuck snap chat, if they are market listed, someone short them, please.
we can't have nice things.
But I believe the era of politically correctness is finally coming to an end.
I think this is good. Calling everything racist trivializes actual racism and makes it easier to get away with.
zomg the laws of physics are racist!
my god, editors. please don't post such incoherent shit. was this written by a first grader?
...must be even more racist then.
Coincidentally they make most of their billions of profits in south and southeast asian countries, as well as in Africa.
White (or rather lighter) skin being considered beautiful has less to do with eurocentrism and more with looking like a member of the rich and beautiful who can afford to spend all day inside instead of toiling on the fields and getting tanned because of that.
I looked at all the side-by-side comparisons I could find on that page and to me it looks like simple color correction. People were taking a bunch of dark photos and the filter corrected them to be medium lightness. It didn't lighten their skin; it lightened the entire photo which their skin is part of. Look at the first example, she has dark hair which is completely washed-out black in the original, with no detail visible, and then in the filtered version you can see some more detail because they lightened the colors.
I'd like to see someone take a photo, do color correction first, then run it through this filter. Does it pick out brown skin tones and turn them whiter? I doubt it but if so then that might be a little bit offensive.
Wait, are you telling me a software company released a product that wasn't fully tested!!!
Color me shocked. Shocked I tell you!
because they didn't think of the impact on other races.
Or because they were thinking about what all companies think about. Profits, cost, and time. You see, in the real world, if you do additional testing and development you increase the time to deliver. If you increase the time to deliver you increase the cost. If you increase the cost you cut into profits.
Are you really this dense?
inadvertent thoughtlessness
So... deliberately thoughtful about everything == not racist? Good luck with that. And here I thought it was prejudice against someone based on race or thinking your race was superior which ironically requires deliberate thinking and/or behavior.
Basically, you're an idiot.
I realize that today's cool kids believe "reading is for teh mentals", but wholly crap you should try it some time. Races are genetic and biological, just like gender is genetic and biological. These are not "social constructs" no matter what your gender studies professor tried to tell you. They are measurable physical differences in DNA, which if you had bothered to take Math and Biology you would already know.
Stop listening to everything people tell you and question the world for change.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
I always thought ugly people looked better with less light. I know I do!
Real estate agents use these filters to make nasty old fences that haven't been maintained look new. It's fraud, I say, fraud.
Let us remove all the emotional crap about beauty "standards" and replace them with what they are. Biological triggers for reproduction. Symmetric features, healthy body shape, healthy hair, healthy smell, and yes healthy skin (1) are all measures we have evolved with to find mates we will most likely succeed in having healthy children with.
1. Healthy skin is not just color, though it is much easier to see poor health on lighter skin. Oily skin, acne, blotchy skin, ringworm, ticks, etc... etc... are all signs of unhealthy skin. Claiming color is the only factor ignores reality, and has become a false narrative for these SJW (Cultural Marxist) movements.
Claiming we should ignore a person's health when choosing a mate is akin to saying the thing we mate with makes no difference, and the gender makes no difference, and the age makes no difference (who needs puberty right SJWs?) Interestingly the same thing these people tell you does not matter when it comes to using private spaces like rest rooms.
If you want to build a bullshit narrative to promote your communist beliefs at least have the audacity to use facts to do so.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Rather than:
"I'm offended by this! So I just won't use it."
People are all...
"I'm offended by this! IT MUST BE BANNED!"
If this keeps catching on, it'll be like Chinese censorship in no time.
Unless, of course, failing to test your software to be sure it would work on a spectrum of skintones, was because they didn't think of the impact on other races.
Wait, are you telling me a software company released a product that wasn't fully tested!!!
Color me shocked. Shocked I tell you!
Well, your reaction aside, maybe this experience will be a lesson for the next time to do the testing better.
Or because they were thinking about what all companies think about. Profits, cost, and time.
Which would be a good reason to wonder if they were not thinking of the impact on other races, and failing to test it on a full spectrum of skintones.
But it's not proven, mind you. There may be some other explanation, including poor choice of lighting in their test facility.
You see, in the real world, if you do additional testing and development you increase the time to deliver. If you increase the time to deliver you increase the cost. If you increase the cost you cut into profits.
Are you really this dense?
In the real world, failing to do sufficient testing causes customers to be unsatisfied and reject your project, which cuts into profits. It can also lead to a negative perception of your products in the future, further cutting your profits. It may even lead to criminal charges.
Or did you fail to think of the counter to your point? If so, that was quite obtuse of you.
Really, this kind of experience has a long history, whether it be for product safety, or just plain usability. You should stop with the belittlement, it doesn't make your position better, but instead worse.
inadvertent thoughtlessness
So... deliberately thoughtful about everything == not racist?
Random cogitation based on works taken out of context =/= showing the actual meaning of a sentence.
I don't know if it was deliberate on your part, but really, try to avoid such manner of quotation.
Good luck with that. And here I thought it was prejudice against someone based on race or thinking your race was superior which ironically requires deliberate thinking and/or behavior.
Basically, you're an idiot.
Nope, as I said, that's just one of the forms of racism. There are others, including thoughtlessness. Instead of calling someone else an idiot, maybe you should try rereading what I said?
Here, I'll quote it for you:
Racism is still racism when it's inadvertent thoughtlessness, not just outright discrimination..
It's not even a long sentence. Try paying attention to it. Parse it carefully.
I know, I know, you probably don't want to hear that racism isn't as simple as pointing out the most bigoted among us, it can be a lot simpler, even as simple as believing Ferguson Missouri is a dangerous place to live.
I remember when typing "gorilla" into Google Photos would bring up pictures of niggers, now that was funny.
Fuck you. Your "feels" don't fucking matter in the real world.
Please learn this as quickly as possible so you can stop being a festering boil on the ass of society and can start contributing something to humanity other than childish bitching and moaning (we're more than full up on that).
You're not a victim (you're just an every-day asshole). So stop trying to seize victimhood as a status symbol.
If you don't, you're going to be mocked, mercilessly, for the rest of your existence.
(Oh, and did we mention that we sell razors? Down the road, not across the tracks!)
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
everything is offensive, all the time, always.
Holy fuck this thread is full of retarded mods, otherwise you've got some kind of sockpuppet army.
I don't even know where the fuck to begin with how full of shit you are.
There are genetic, biological differences between peoples, obviously. But they do not divide nearly into the racial categories we, or any other society, think in terms of. Where to draw the lines between which groups of people with what genetic differences is entirely a social matter that doesn't line up at all with where the biology would suggest them; there are greater genetic differences between people within Africa (who would all be called one "race" by our modern construction thereof) than between peoples living on opposite sides of the world outside of Africa.
So if people within India decide to divide up their people into several peoples (castes are inherited, so its your genetic ancestry that matters) and discriminate between them, that is every fucking bit the same exact thing as any kind of racial discrimination, just under a different name. Pull your goddamn head out of your ass and try cracking one of those biology textbooks you preach about for a try.
And I don't know why the fuck you bring gender into this, you neanderthaloid asshat, but you're wrong there too, 100%. The thing you're talking about is sex, not gender. And yes, sex is biological, but not entirely genetic; there are biological females with XY chromosomes and androgen insensitivity that makes them develop as females nevertheless; and in many other ways, it doesn't divide at neatly into the social categories that you want it to, fuckwit, and shitstains like you are the ones imposing artificial social constructs in bald ignorance of biological fact. Again, read a fucking book yourself. And you question the world instead of swallowing whatever comforting lies the people you grew up with told you.
And what the fuck does a math class have to do with any of this, you cuntfaced cockhole?
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
I still have no idea how people can post their comments in the wrong thread.
Organizing hundreds of butterflies is difficult. Mistakes happen.
Didn't they get the memo? That has to be "blackwashing" filters now!
Oh! Sorry! Sorry! "non-whitewashing" it is, I think? Or did that change again to something even more ridiculous by now?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It sure worked for "terrorism". Everyone taking a crap now the wrong way is a "terrorist". To the point where the label itself means literally jack shit anymore and we have to give the idiots that blow shit up and plaster their own shit everywhere in the process a new name.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
for years they just called it redacted instead of blackfilter nobody complained (of any imortance and significance including jumped up journos) then!
Let alone a slashdot story.
A "blackface filter" I could see some having a problem with. Particularly if it did something really offensive like make you look like a white performer in a 1920's minstrel show. But I follow a lot of the big names in "Black Twitter", and not only have I yet to see anyone up in arms about this, I've seen several (eg: @Deray) use the flower-crown filter themselves.
Honestly, real activists generally have better things to worry about. Like not getting shot in the streets for nothing, or asked for identity papers when using the John.
Don't like it? Don't use it. That simple. I'm willing to bet that the 'backlash' is he extremely loud 3% of the population that has perfected seeming like a much larger group than they actually are.
Everyone taking a crap now the wrong way is a "terrorist".
Well, if you'd smelled some of the stink-bombs some drunk guys leave in club bathrooms you'd call them terrorists too.
Probably not racist in intent but in practice showed a lack of thought towards darker skinned users.
What people like is not always political correct.
Just think of the asian people, where the western white man is the ideal for a beautiful person. I guess asian feminists are not very happy about this. People always MUST like what they are themself, idols are forbidden.
Same for thin people or in the past fat people (where fat was a beauty ideal, because fat people "had enough to eat" to put it in plain words).