FaceApp removed a new update after outraged users accused the social media app of racism.
The company sought to improve user experience by introducing the new ethnicity filters.
FaceApp allows users to upload photos and apply filters to artificially alter their appearance with one tap.
The new filters, which were introduced on Wednesday, allowed users to see what they would look like if they were born a different race or ethnicity.
The Asian, black, Caucasian and Indian filters changed the users’ skin tone, hairstyle and facial features with one tap.
But the new update didn’t go over well with users who accused FaceApp of promoting digital blackface.
The new feature was quickly deleted on Wednesday.
FaceApp CEO Yaroslav Goncharov insisted the new filters weren’t racist in a statement to Cosmopolitan magazine before the filters were deleted.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
