FaceApp just added 'ethnicity filters,' and it's going about as well as you'd think.
These are some major bad-idea jeans.
FaceApp went full "Milkshake Duck" on Wednesday, adding filters that let users alter the race of someone in a photo.
It was exactly as cringeworthy as one would expect.
Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes.

For those not familiar with FaceApp, the iOS and Android app became popular earlier this year, allowing people to morph photos of themselves and others into different ages and genders.
Mostly harmless and a little funny, the app drew some criticism for its "flash" filter (which had the effect of lightening the user's skin tone) and for its ability to put a smile on anyone's face (some said this was sexist). Still, it seemed that most people agreed it was just a bit of fun.
The newly released ethnicity filters, however, drew some quick "WTF?" responses on Twitter.
"For the record I'm mixed white and Indian and I find every part of this offensive," Toby Sinbad Walker added via tweet. "It adds to insecurities about my natural bone structure."
As much as this seems like an obviously bad idea, FaceApp stands behind its product.
CEO Yaroslav Goncharov doesn't see the problem, writing in an email:
"The ethnicity change filters have been designed to be equal in all aspects. They don’t have any positive or negative connotations associated with them. They are even represented by the same icon. In addition to that, the list of those filters is shuffled for every photo, so each user sees them in a different order."
He seems to miss the point just a bit. It’s not the order or the ranking of the filters that’s getting people upset, but the stereotyping mixed with America’s fraught history with blackface that has people feeling uncomfortable.
In a 2015 editorial at The Guardian, writer Sisonke Msimang masterfully explained why "hi-tech blackface" — editing photos to look like a different race — is hurtful. Msimang uses a powerful analogy about an alien visiting Earth and trying to understand the underlying point of changing someone’s race if all groups truly are equal, and how it’s only through looking at the broader context of civilization and systemic inequality that the alien can understand why this is offensive. In other words, this isn’t something that exists in a vacuum.
Worse app ideas probably exist. I just can't think of any right now.
Update 8/9/2017: Goncharov says in an email that the new filters will be removed today.



A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva


An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.