HOUSTON — If you hopped on Instagram yesterday and couldn't find your favorite filter, you may have thought it was a glitch. But it's not an error.
In fact, those living in Texans can't access them at all. At least for now.
On Wednesday, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, turned off augmented reality filters on its social platforms.
The change comes after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit accusing the company of misusing facial recognition technology.
There's also a class action lawsuit that was settled in Illinois restricting the use of biometric data.
Since Texas has a similar case pending, you may be seeing a lot of posts with the hashtag #nofilter for the foreseeable future.
The change is already frustrating users, including Houston influencer Erika Harrison.
"Some of us are OK with our faces being mapped... our data being shared that way," Harrison said. "Give us an option to opt-in to that."
The good news for users is that Meta says it plans to give people the option to opt-in. In the meantime, the company released a statement regarding the change.
"We are taking this step to prevent meritless and distracting litigation under laws in these two states based on a mischaracterization of how the features work," Meta said.
Meta has not said when the opt-in feature will be available.