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After Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit back in February against Meta alleging the company was not properly using its facial recognition technology, Meta has disabled filters on Instagram.

In this photo illustration, a woman holds a smartphone with...

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Back in February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit claiming Facebook aka Meta was not using facial recognition technology correctly.

This sounds just as terrifying as you would think. What exactly is the proper way to use facial recognition? Texas has its own Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act that makes companies get the consent of users if they store their biometric data. The lawsuit alleges that hasn’t been consistent across the board. Illinois filed a similar lawsuit and according to Complex, Meta was forced to disable the filters in both states until further notice.

“The technology we use to power augmented reality effects like avatars and filters is not facial recognition or any technology covered by the Texas and Illinois laws, and is not used to identify anyone.”

Meta said in a statement, “Nevertheless, we are taking this step to prevent meritless and distracting litigation under laws in these two states based on a mischaracterization of how our features work. We remain committed to delivering AR experiences that people love, and that a diverse roster of creators use to grow their businesses, without needless friction or confusion.”

Meta remains optimistic the filters will return, but the fight over facial recognition is just heating up.

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