A viral filter that made people overweight has been removed by TikTok amid a barrage of criticism from social media users. Known as the “chubby filter”, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool took a user’s photo and altered their appearance to seem as if they had gained weight.
A section of users shared their “before and after” images on the platform and joked about how different they looked while others criticised the filter saying it was perpetuating a form of body shaming which should not be permitted.
“There’s an amaaazing new trend on TikTok where skinny girls use a filter to become “chubby” and laugh laugh at the results and everyone else laughs and it’s sooooooo funny and we definitely aren’t spiralling back down to pro ana death to fats era that damages every young woman,” one user wrote, criticising the filter.
There’s an amaaazing new trend on TikTok where skinny girls use a filter to become “chubby” and laugh laugh at the results and everyone else laughs and it’s sooooooo funny and we definitely aren’t spiralling back down to pro ana death to fats era that damages every young woman pic.twitter.com/p2SsnmSNTb
— Bec Shaw (@Brocklesnitch) March 17, 2025
Social media is regularly messed up. But the latest CapCut filter trend is to make yourself chubby… and the comments people are sharing are things like “motivation to stay at the gym” or “what I would look like if I was lazy” or “tweedle dum and tweedle dee”. This is fatphobia. pic.twitter.com/pI7Ou8PWS9
— Dr Emma Beckett (@DrEmmaBeckett) March 17, 2025
TikTok’s statement
As the controversy snowballed, TikTok released a statement saying the filter had been uploaded by CapCut, an app that is separate from TikTok but has the same parent company, ByteDance.
As per BBC, the platform was now reviewing videos uploaded to the app using the said effect. The Chinese company added it was making those videos ineligible for recommendation and blocking them from teen accounts.
Searching for the filter now generates a disclaimer at the top of the search results which reads: “You are more than your weight. If you or someone you know has questions about body image, food, or exercise — it is important to know that help is out there and you are not alone.”
“If you feel comfortable, you can confide in someone you trust or check out the resources below. Please remember to take care of yourselves and each other,” the disclaimer adds, linking to TikTok’s Safety Center resource page and a website to find local service providers who can help.