MakeApp makeup remover accused of gender stereotyping
A m obile application which enables users to add, alter or remove make-up from someone's face suffered a backlash about its feeble accuracy. Many users complained that MakeApp's make-up removal filter, which commentators said was only developed by men, made them look worse than they would without makeup. Some also pointed out that it also makes them appear haggard and sallow. It was also widely panned for seemingly o bjectif ying and sham ing women. MakeApp founder Ashot Gabrelyanov responded to accusations of misogyny by saying , 'We built MakeApp as an experiment and released it into the wild a few months ago and unfortunately the media coverage solely focused on the make-up removal function of the app and characterised it as a bunch of 'tech bros' trying to hurt women, which is just so far from the truth'. System 🤖 MakeApp AppStore 🔗 Operator: Apple; Magic Unicorn Developer: Magic Unicorn Country: USA Sector: Beauty/cosmetics Purpose: Add/remove make-up Technology: Neural network; Deep learning; Machine learning Issue: Accuracy/reliability; Bias/discrimination
- Date it happened
- 2017-11-01
- Organisation involved
- Apple; Magic Unicorn
- Product, system or model
- MakeApp
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