Coronavirus filter generates controversy on Instagram and revolts users

Filter Coronavirus menimbulkan kontroversi di Instagram dan memberontak pengguna

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Instagram users have created filters that play with the disease. The effects, which can be added to Stories, range from surgical masks and infectious molecules flying through the air to plaques that say whether or not a person will die from COVID-19. But not everyone saw this as a joke. The filters generated controversy in the social network and were identified as «inappropriate», given the global health crisis caused by the coronavirus.

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Augmented reality effects are available to any user and can be found by searching for «coronavirus» in the Instagram filter gallery. In other social networks, Internet users criticized the bad taste of the game. «We are talking about something that is killing people today! Completely inappropriate,» wrote user Karen Meagan on Twitter.

1 of 2 Filters play with coronavirus pandemic and generate revolt on Instagram – Photo: Reproduction / Instagram

Filters play with the coronavirus pandemic and generate revolt on Instagram – Photo: Reproduction / Instagram

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Still on the microblog, a user who identifies himself as @harianashe classified the new fashion as «stupid». «They made a coronavirus filter for Instagram. You are so stupid,» he wrote.

On the other hand, there are developers who are using Instagram’s augmented reality effects to explain how people can prevent the spread of the coronavirus. This is the case of AZ Central, Arizona, in the United States. The portal created an animated model to explain how the virus works.

2 of 2 Filter uses augmented reality to explain how the coronavirus works – Photo: Reproduction / Instagram (@AZCentral)

Filter uses augmented reality to explain how the coronavirus works – Photo: Reproduction / Instagram (@AZCentral)

A highlight on the @AZCentral profile displays a red molecule with «spines» and explains that it is this structure that allows the coronavirus to connect to human cells. In another Story, the newspaper shows how the virus can survive on surfaces.

The new coronavirus has reached more than 124,000 people worldwide and left more than 4,600 people dead. In Brazil, the number of confirmed cases exceeds 70.

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