No fake photos allowed.
Dating website Plenty of Fish is forcing singles to post more truthful photos of themselves by banning filters from the platform, the company announced this week.
The decision follows a survey by the site which found that 70% of singles think face-filtered photos are deceptive. The filters make users look more attractive than they really are or add cute accessories such as bunny ears.
More than half of those surveyed went so far as to say they thought filters should be banned, and a third of respondents said they had passed on messaging a potential match because their photo was too heavily filtered.
The dog-ears filter was voted the worst of them all, with bunny ears coming in second and fake sunglasses in third.
Those surveyed also admitted that photos are far from the only things they embellish on dating apps — 31% confessed to exaggerating their level of education and 45% said they had lied about their income.
“Singles today are craving greater transparency in dating, with the large majority of singles wanting honest, straightforward information both from potential partners, as well as in their own self-presentation,” clinical psychologist Cortney S. Warren says in a press release.
The dating service — part of the Match Group, which also owns OkCupid and Tinder — expects to have fully audited all 70 million of its images for face filters before the end of this year.
While the site is heralding the ban as a first for the industry, it’s not the first dating app to experiment with AI.
In April, Bumble announced a “Private Detector” feature to block unwanted d–k pics.
