Snapchat has removed a filter that turned selfies into Asian caricatures after it was accused of promoting a racist stereotype.
Appalled users turned to social media to vent their anger, claiming that the feature was an example of “yellowface”.
The filter featured squinty eyes and was labelled a racist caricature by a number of users on Twitter.
Snapchat told the Verge on Wednesday that the filter had been inspired by anime and was meant to be playful, but that it would be removed and not put back into circulation.
One user tweeted a pic of the filter with the caption “the most overly-racist filter ever”. Several more said it was a “clear example” of yellowface.
One Twitter used wanted to remind Snapchat of its own policies:
The backlash comes just months after the social media giant, which has a particularly young userbase, faced widespread criticism for introducing a Bob Marley filter that was criticised for being an example of digital “blackface”.
Diversity has become a flashpoint for the tech industry in recent months. But Snapchat has repeatedly refused to reveal its diversity stats even as rivals such as Facebook, Google and Apple have committed to publishing updates on an annual basis.
In an interview with Recode, Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel said: “I should have exact percentages for you but we just don’t think about diversity in terms of numbers that way.”
The Huffington Post UK have reached out to Snapchat for comment.
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