@BrodyJenner/Twitter; @ScottDisick/Twitter
- Celebrities Brody Jenner and Scott Disick, as well as influencer Danielle Cohn, are facing criticism on social media after promoting an app that’s supposed to morph the appearance of your face to match certain races.
- Jenner and Cohn both edited their faces to appear Black.
- It was not immediately clear whether Jenner, Disick, or Cohn were paid for their promotions.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Scott Disick, Brody Jenner, and influencer Danielle Cohn posted promotions for an app that morphed the appearance of their faces to make them appear as if they were different races.
The app supposedly uses artificial intelligence to adjust the user’s face to show how one would look if you were “born on a different continent,” Gradient’s website says, though the app’s primary functionality appears to be the ability to morph skin color and face shape. Several of the locations offered are countries, rather than continents, including Brazil and India.
In the filter example shown on the website, the model appears to be caucasian, with filters for “Asia,” “Brazil,” and “India” adjusting her skin color and facial features.
Gradient
Disick, Jenner, and Cohn are all white. Many social media users replied with criticism and questioned the app’s intentions.
Jenner and Cohn both used filters to make them look Black, which some social media critics said was a form of digital blackface, or the use of social media by non-Black people to associate oneself with Blackness and Black culture.
Jenner used the app to show his face adjusted by filters for Africa, Asia, and India. "You need to try this new feature in the gradient app," he said on Tuesday.
—Brody Jenner (@BrodyJenner) September 22, 2020
Disick's tweet showed his face adjusted by filters for Europe, Asia, and India, and he asked, "Which one is better?"
—Scott Disick (@ScottDisick) September 22, 2020
Cohn's collaboration with Gradient, which she posted on TikTok on Tuesday, drew many negative comments. "This doesn't sit right with me," one user replied. TikToker Devenity Perkins, who is Black, commented on an Instagram post about Cohn's video, writing that "whoever made the app is a weirdo."
It was not immediately clear whether Jenner, Disick, or Cohn were paid for their promotions. Insider has reached out to Gradient for comment.
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