AI 'Chubby' Filter Causes Outrage on TikTok

A new filter on TikTok has caused outrage among creators on the platform. The filter, which is being widely referred to as a "AI chubby filter," allows users to edit photos of themselves to look larger.

What Is The AI 'Chubby Filter'?

The videos being posted on TikTok and the trend largely fall into two categories—the person using the filter finds it funny, or the user posts a video critical of it. Videos on both sides of debate are amassing hundreds of thousands of likes and millions of views.

One video, posted by the account on TikTok Stella's Adventures, criticized the trend, with a text overlay that read, "Just my real life body that your taking the mick out of there girl. It's giving mean girl energy. A reminder that I live in this body, It's my home and it's thanks to trends like this that I want to cover it up." This video has received over a million views as of publication time.

British TikTok creator SaffsStuff posted a video speaking about the trend, where she said: "If you are using that trend, you are joining a culture of people that have been knowingly using the trend to either mock people who are considered "overweight" or "chubby," or you are knowingly using that trend to fish for being flattered about your weight pre using that trend."

Other creators have posted videos of them using the filter with captions like "Still look good though" and "Shouldn't have got that takeaway last night." One creator posted that the trend should be protected "at all costs" and one social media user commented: "It's a joke. A harmless filter."

Newsweek spoke with Heather Widdows, a professor of philosophy and author of the book, Perfect Mei, about the trend. In an email shared with Newsweek, she said: "Most people want to be thin—usually thinner than they are—and as filters and apps change and modify our virtual image we can be this in the virtual world.

"Putting on fatness using an app could be for lots of reasons, but because it is all about how we look, it reinforces the beauty ideal. It says looks matter, and matter most, and reasserts that thinness is a core feature of the ideal."

The Decline Of Size Inclusivity

The filter and the fallout come at a time when discourse around thinness is at an all-time high. In the 2010s, the body positivity movement was a mainstay in the cultural lexicon, with influencers, brands and creators having and facilitating conversations about a push for body diversity, inclusivity and acceptance of different body types.

So far, the 2020s have seen these conversations either stall or stop entirely, as the rise of weight loss drugs like Ozempic has seen a cultural shift around body diversity.

On Monday, Vogue Business published its size inclusivity report, as the fall/winter catwalks have come to a close. The report detailed that size inclusivity had declined once again, as had been the trend in other recent seasons.

The report read: "Of the 8,703 looks presented across 198 shows and presentations, 97.7 per cent were straight-size (US 0-4), 2 per cent were mid-size (US 6-12) and 0.3 per cent were plus size (US 14+)."

The report comes as usage of weight loss drugs continues to rise in the U.S. According to KFF survey data from May 2024, 1 in 8 U.S. adults had used a GLP-1 weight loss drug like Ozempic at some point in their life, and 6 percent of U.S. adults are currently using a prescription. Further, a Gallup poll from December 2024 found that 43 percent of Americans said that they were overweight, with 55 percent saying they wanted to slim down.

Body Image, Fatphobia And Changing Standards

Speaking about social attitudes toward fatness on a recent episode of The Polyester Podcast, host and author Ione Gamble said: "A lot has changed with body positivity and the landscape of fatness and it seems as though, being fat is probably the worst it's ever been right now."

Co-host and fellow author Gina Tonic agreed, saying: "It makes it feel even more hopeless when it's like, we actually got these steps made and now it's being rolled back."

According to a 2021 volume of the International Journal of Obesity, more than 40 percent of U.S. adults across a range of body sizes reported experiencing weight stigma. And social media trends like this filter can at times act as a spotlight for it.

"We make moral judgments about people based on how they look," Widdows told Newsweek."For example, attach characteristics such as lazy to fat bodies from as young as 3. People claim we are anti-fat for health reasons, but this is usually an excuse. It's usually a moral judgment."

This is only heightened by the prominence of social media.

"In an increasing visual and virtual culture 'who we are' is 'how we look,' the body has become the self," Widdows said. "Young people live as much in the 'virtual' world as the 'real' and the profiles on social media can feel as much the self as the self we see in the mirror."

And this is something that is only increasing.

"The beauty ideal is more dominant, demanding and global than ever before," Widdows said. "We have never before had a global beauty ideal, and a global beauty ideal naturalises and normalises, turning optional beauty practices into required health and hygiene practices."

Like many internet trends, the "AI Chubby Filter," is likely to burn fast and bright, and may well be quickly forgotten. The shift in the treatment of inclusivity, body diversity and beauty ideals, on the other hand, has become much more entrenched.

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