A screenshot of the FaceApp app. (Credit: FaceApp)
After considerable backlash on social media, face altering app FaceApp has decided to remove its latest features, which let users change their ethnicity.
The app, which lets you "transform your face using artificial intelligence in just one tap," added new filters earlier this week to let people change their faces to include different ethnicities.
A screenshot of the push notification alerted users of the update, telling them the new filters were: Asian, Black, Caucasian and Indian.
DISNEY APPS SPYING ON CHILDREN, LAWSUIT CLAIMS
Within minutes of the update going live, users took to social media to express their dismay, some even going so far as to criticize them as racist.
Below is a smattering of tweets expressing dismay surrounding the filters:
When asked for comment by Fox News, FaceApp CEO Yaroslav Goncharov said, "The new filters have been removed."
The company's original statement surrounding the backlash was: "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."
The app, which went live on the App Store and Google Play in January, has been criticized before. In April, there was backlash for a "hot" filter that caused skin tones to be lightened.
It has been downloaded between 10 million and 50 million times on Google Play and has a 3-star rating on the App Store.
Get a daily look at what’s developing in science and technology throughout the world.