Influencer Jill Lansky of The August Diaries believes there are benefits to France’s bill that would require disclosure of filter use.

A French bill would require influencers to disclose filter use on photos and videos. Canadian influencer Jill Lansky think it could benefit Canada.

By Jill LanskySpecial to the Star

Sun., April 16, 20236 min. read

The French government recently proposed a bill that would require influencers to disclose their use of filters and retouching on every photo or video, among other provisions. The bill is said to be motivated in part by a desire to protect people from negative mental health repercussions tied to social media use, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia and depression. The bill still has to pass through the Senate, but if it becomes law, French influencers could face hefty fines or even jail time if they fail to comply. Canadian influencer Jill Lansky, otherwise known as @theaugustdiaries, shared her thoughts on the bill, and what a similar law could mean for Canada.

“In general, I think it’s really good.

I think one of the reasons why influencers did so well is because audiences felt like they were much more relatable than a celebrity endorsement; they felt like they could trust them, they felt like a friend. It feels pretty terrible to be part of an industry where somebody can promote something like a foundation or skincare using a filter. It’s false advertising, in my opinion.

I have never posted any sponsored content with any kind of filter that changes my face. Sometimes I’ll use a filter on a photo but that’s purely for colour purposes. I naively didn’t realize it was happening until recently. The filters are so much better than they used to be—when somebody glides their hand over their face, you can’t even tell that the filter is still on, there’s no disruption in the filter and it’s a little bit scary. We need these rules more now, maybe, because it’s almost invisible to the eye.

I don’t want people to look at their face and see things like pores, that are so normal, and feel terrible about it.

Exaggeration has been a tool used in advertising and magazines for a really long time, with Photoshopped images and adding false lashes on mascara ads, which only more recently, companies have had to disclose. But now with social media, and the monetization of the ability to look perfect, it makes people feel like they’re the odd one out and they’re ugly. It’s not that that hadn’t pervaded our society with traditional advertising but now it seems like everywhere you look, all of your friends, everyone, can do it.

That is problematic in and of itself, but then when you’re selling people products to improve their looks and you’re tapping into that sense of being “ugly” or “the odd one out,” it seems quite predatory. I don’t want people to look at their face and see things like pores, that are so normal, that are what real people look like, and feel terrible about it.

It’s a more nuanced issue with influencers using a filter every time they post on their stories. I don’t want to sound like I’m knocking the younger generation like, ‘Oh, here’s a millennial!’ but I do feel like it’s more of a norm for them, just because that’s what they were brought up doing on social media. Filters didn’t exist when I was first on Instagram.

I tried the ‘glam look’ filter on TikTok and it was interesting because I posted it, and you could see the before and after, and somebody commented, ‘Oh, that’s just you with makeup.’ I was like, it’s not. Makeup can do a lot, but I think it’s really important to distinguish the difference. It doesn’t look like me; it looks like I’ve had some work done. It’s such a big jump that I don’t feel like myself.

It’s just so perfect and unrealistic, and every time I see it, it makes me concerned about the younger generation and makes me so glad that I didn’t have to deal with that. I worry about young people, especially young girls, growing up and seeing this as the norm. It’s really detrimental to how they see themselves and what they see beauty as. It’s already so hard to be a young person and then to have that thrown in your face over and over again, I feel like it would be really difficult.

I’ve never had a brand tell me to use a filter or photoshopping or anything like that, in fact I’ve seen in a few contracts that brands are saying that you’re not allowed to use filters. But when they want to see a before and after, they do want to make sure that it’s a fairly significant change. I think that there is a pressure that comes along with that; they want to see a visible result.

Recently, with a job that I had, they wanted a before and after and I sent it over and I said, ‘I don’t want to use this because I don’t think that there’s a big change.’ It was for something that was for use over a certain amount of time and they wanted the before and after for just one use and I said, ‘I just don’t think that that is the right way to go about it.’ Sometimes you have to speak up and challenge what a client wants, but I’m sure that is really difficult for people, especially because now there are so many more influencers than ever, with TikTok, so it’s a lot easier to say, ‘If you won’t do it, we’ll just go to somebody else.’

This bill would require platforms like TikTok and Instagram to set up channels for consumers to report influencers. Because of the sheer amount of saturation in this industry, how are you going to be able to police it without people’s help? But that opens up the issue of false reporting, and unless you’re a huge influencer with quite a lot of exposure and media presence, it would be incredibly difficult to police. I think that’s why there hasn’t been a huge crackdown on making sure that people are posting sponsored content with hashtag ad or sponsored. I feel like more so than the platforms, it should be on the brands and companies that hire influencers.

Having to put a filter or retouching disclaimer in a banner on photos or videos is going to deter people for sure. I don’t know if a kind of a slap on the wrist would make a difference but I do think jail time is too severe a punishment, especially for a first-time offender.

It’s interesting that this conversation took so long to happen. As an influencer, it feels a little bit like a double standard because magazines have been putting out retouched ads or advertorials for years and there’s never been such a call for disclosure on that. I think for a long time people didn’t realize it was happening. And it was a small number of very large companies who made a lot of money off it. Now it’s like, someone with 15,000 followers is going to get jail time. It’s an easier target in a lot of ways.

Still, I think it’s really good that we’re talking about these practices now. I get quite a few messages from people who say they really like that they can see my real skin and my real pores, and that’s really encouraging for me. I hope that that’s something that will continue to snowball, so it’s not like everybody just wants this perfect beauty filter face.”

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