The dangers of TIKTOK FILTERS

Sarah Vine investigates the growing popularity of using a new filter to completely alter your appearance

- SARAH VINE & SAMANTHA BRICK

The extraordinary transformation you see before you (top right), may look like it took several hours and a crack team of hair and make-up experts, but actually I managed it myself in just a couple of seconds. Sitting in my car on a rainy afternoon, I opened up TikTok on my phone, pressed the ‘plus’ button at the bottom of the screen, clicked on the ‘Bold Glamour’ filter, and in the blink of an eye went from pale and stale (not helped by a stinking cold) to hot and glossy, a cross between Megan Fox and Kim Kardashian on acid. Suddenly, I had soft, pillowy lips, a smooth forehead, a narrow, smaller nose, a sultry, cat-like expression and a tighter, sharper jawline. No blotches, bumps or blemishes, just all-round foxiness. In other words, a wholly unrealistic representation of the real me.

Social media is full of clever filters that alter a user’s appearance in seconds, and which aren’t always easily detected. The latest iteration of this is TikTok’s Bold Glamour filter, which uses Artificial Intelligence — or AI — to sculpt the facial features of users, smooth out their imperfections, brighten their teeth and eyes and generally turn even the most dishevelled, worn out middle-aged hag (me) into something resembling a contestant on Love Island.

In the month after its February release, it was used in more than 15 million TikTok videos, with users alternately delighted and horrified at its effectiveness.