By: Julie E. Pandich*
Abstract
Social media filters are so engrained in society—virtually everyone filters their photos and videos without a second thought. As a result, filters are everywhere, from posts of friends and family to those of celebrities and social media influencers. Yet beneath their fun façade, filters come with serious mental health consequences. Because social media powerfully influences idealized beauty standards, filter usage leads to unrealistic expectations about how social media users should look in real life. Also concerning, filter usage in social media beauty advertisements promotes unrealistic expectations for how a beauty product should perform and misleads consumers.
While the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates online advertising by brands and social media influencers, FTC guidelines are silent as to the problems filters cause. Currently, the FTC does not explicitly require brands and social media influencers to disclose their use of filters in social media advertising, nor does the FTC ban filter usage generally.
* J.D. Candidate, The Pennsylvania State University School of Law, 2024.