Texas and Illinois, have y’all noticed anything different about Instagram?
Wednesday Instagram disabled certain filters in both states due to their facial recognition laws.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Instagram’s parent company, Meta, citing the tech giant’s misuse of its facial recognition technology. Per the lawsuit, it is illegal for companies like Meta to use Texans’ biometric information and store it within their systems without the user’s consent or knowledge beforehand.
Paxton claims Instagram is breaking the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act because its filters learn a user’s face and can automatically tag or associate a person with an image without their consent. Therefore, if a filter uses facial geometry– such as augmented reality filters, it cannot be used with Texas’ state lines. Filters that solely change the background color or image color, or do not take users’ facial geometry are still allowed per the CUBI Act’s guidelines.
AR filters are also being disabled in Illinois due to the state’s Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act which is similar to Texas’ CUBI Act.
Late last month, Meta settled a class-action lawsuit for more than $1.4M Illinois users. The lawsuit alleged Meta “collected and stored biometric data of Facebook users in Illinois without proper notice or consent”, which is in violation of Illinois law with tag suggestions and other facial recognition technology. The settlement payments were starting to be mailed to residents who fit the definition of “Facebook users located in Illinois for whom Facebook created and stored a face template after June 7, 2011.”
A decision or settlement on the Texas lawsuit is still pending.
Meta released a statement on why filters in both states were disabled.
“The technology we use to power augmented reality effects like avatars and filters is not facial recognition or any technology covered by the Texas and Illinois laws, and is not used to identify anyone. Nevertheless, we are taking this step to prevent meritless and distracting litigation under laws in these two states based on a mischaracterization of how our features work. We remain committed to delivering AR experiences that people love, and that a diverse roster of creators use to grow their businesses, without needless friction or confusion.”
