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  • 2022-05-13 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Texas Ban Instagram Filters? (de)
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  • In May 2022, various social media users and news outlets reported that the state of Texas had banned the use of certain augmented reality filters popular on the photo-sharing app Instagram. For example, on May 11 @ThatBoyJorddynnn posted a widely shared tweet that stated, simply: Texas really just banned IG filters off Instagram... Several other widely shared social media posts made similar claims that Texas had banned Instagram filters. Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, did disable certain augmented reality effects and filters, for Instagram and Facebook users in Texas and Illinois, in response to major lawsuits in those states over its use of facial recognition tools. However, Meta itself voluntarily chose to disable those features. Neither Texas nor Illinois banned them. As a result, we are issuing a rating of Mostly False. The full background to those recent developments has been quite protracted and complicated, so the following is a very rough summary of the key events. On Feb. 14, 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms, accusing the company of large-scale violations of CUBI, via its facial recognition program. Paxton wrote: Paxton has asked a court in Harrison County to put Meta on trial, order the company not to use facial recognition on its apps, delete existing data gathered from facial recognition programs, and pay $25,000 for each violation of CUBI — damages that could amount to billions of dollars if ordered. Meta has rejected those allegations, claimed CUBI itself is unconstitutional, and asked the court to throw out Paxton's lawsuit. However, the company has also said it would be temporarily disabling certain augmented reality (AR) features on Instagram and Facebook for users in Texas and Illinois. Those features include certain filters, effects, and masks. In a statement, Meta said: Paxton's lawsuit against Meta did not cite these AR features as instances of the company's alleged privacy violations, and the company itself insists those features bear no relation to the Texas and Illinois biometrics laws in question. Therefore, while Meta's decision to temporarily disable those features for users in those states came in response to the major lawsuits, it is reasonable to say that it was not taken on pain of penalty. That is, Meta itself chose — more or less freely — to disable those features, so the claim that Texas banned Instagram filters is really not accurate. Hence our rating of Mostly False. (en)
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