Chubby filter gives influencers an appalling way to fat-shame others: Outing all the mean girls

Unfortunately, there’s an app for that.The latest trend to sweep social media has been dubbed fatphobic as people use generative AI to make themselves appear “chubby.”On TikTok, the “chubby” filter is making its rounds, much to the dismay of body-positive users who have slammed the fad as “toxic” and “giving mean girl vibes.”Using the generative AI tool on the video editing app CapCut — and then uploading to TikTok — users are transforming a photo of themselves to make their bodies larger, joking that they should stop eating too much or are using the end result as gym motivation.“Shouldn’t of [sic] had that takeaway last night,” user Dennis McCann wrote in the caption of his post.“If this doesn’t scare me into sticking to the gym I don’t know what will,” a creator named Demi wrote on her clip, adding that she “burst out laughing” upon seeing the filter applied to her photo.But the filter — and the creators using it — have received swift backlash from viewers who slammed the trend and criticized the content creators for making jokes about the particular body type.“How is body shaming still a thing in 2025?!?” one person commented on McCann’s post.“It’s giving mean girl vibes,” chided another.“This trend is so offensive, toxic, hurtful and this video could have a huge impact on a plus size person and trigger harmful eating,” scolded someone else.“Weight can be due to medical issues and isnt a joke, pls be kind.”“It’s 2025 and we’re still laughing at people for their body type,” one user commented on Demi’s video.“This trend is basically mean girls outing themselves,” another wrote.“This trend is so beyond disrespectful… such a step back in society’s beauty standards,” someone else chimed in.But some people defended the filter, calling it “harmless” and “a joke.”“Don’t understand why all these people are triggered by this, it’s just supposed to be a bit of a laugh, ...