Abstract

In 2017, Instagram introduced Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) to its platform by integrating “effects” also known as filters on social media. This innovation allows users to alter, modify, and augment their image—and, subsequently, their reality. In 2020, the app’s popularity led to the production of a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Artificial Intelligence (AI) creation hub known as the Effect Gallery. Among women, one of the most popular categories of filters is beauty effects. These simulate the appearance of a makeover and include wide eyes, long eyelashes, small noses, large lips, and clear skin. Collectively, these effects simultaneously racialize and homogenize ethnic and European characteristics by simulating a racially ambiguous mask that users can employ to disguise their natural selves. Through a selective walkthrough method and a critical comparative semiotic analysis, I examine how beauty filters reinforce and perpetuate whiteness, femininity, and racial stereotypes through the illusion of beauty contributing to a colonial legacy. Furthermore, I explore how these filters affect the racialized habitus by identifying how these representations are potentially symbolically violent to Asian female diasporic users online.