Earlier this year, TikTok unveiled a new filter (the ‘Glamour’ filter) which could bring with it DISASTROUS consequences for our society. Glenn and Stu explain how this new filter doesn’t just smudge some edges or add makeup — it completely TRANSFORMS your face into one that looks like a model’s. What will this mean for teenage girls? How will this affect beauty standards? Why aren’t the same women who were once outraged at magazines for photoshopping images speaking out in the same way now? And is this kind of terrifying filter available for TikTok users in China, or just in the Western World? Glenn and Stu discuss all these questions, plus more…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Hey, the Chinese government has just introduced a new filter on TikTok that's going to be really good for all of us, especially our girls.

You're going to love this.

STU: Remarkable.

GLENN: This is a new filter that you can put on all of your TikToks. And it is making, you know, beautiful women and average-looking women and a few not so good-looking women, look like models.

STU: They all look incredible, in realtime.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Even on mobile. And these filters, which are -- have a basis in a computational model of facial beauty, will alter your face in realtime, not look a little bit better. We've all seen filters, right?

It blurs a little bit. And it makes your skin look a little bit more smooth, or whatever. And this changes you completely into an incredibly good-looking person -- version of yourself.

GLENN: And it's not just like a makeup effect.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: I mean, it's -- it actually alters your face, into -- takes what you have, but then alters it in such a way, to where it beautifies you.

STU: Yeah. I retweeted this at Stu Does America. If you want to see some of the back and forth. And the commentary in some ways, is as valuable as the picture. Because the picture will make your jaw drop, when you see what these people really look like.

But then also, every one of them has this reaction like, oh, my gosh, I look so beautiful. And then they show their real face. And they say, oh, gosh, I've never felt more ugly.

What is this going to do to people?

GLENN: Oh, it's terrifying. It is terrifying. And, you know, I have to tell you, the first though was, how do I get one of these for our cameras? But that was really more about you, than me. You know, I know what I'm inflicting on you, if you happen to be watching.

STU: Right.

GLENN: There's a reason I'm on radio, you know.

STU: No kidding.

GLENN: Shut up.

Because you're there too.

STU: No kidding.

GLENN: If you're watching on the Blaze. I don't know if you can take it from behind me, and show what's on the screen. But this -- this woman, she is pretty. She just looks like she got up in the morning. Right? She doesn't have any makeup on. But she looks pretty. And look at that.

Now she's a -- an absolute model.

And she is -- she's one of them that's like, this is -- they're all saying the same thing. This is bad for society.

STU: Yeah. My initial two reactions were the same as yours. Which is, oh, my gosh, this is terrible for society.

How do I get this on every camera I use? The market is going to push this through. It's too good. It's too good.

Everyone will want to look like this. Especially when you have an entire society based on turning people into broadcasters.

GLENN: When you -- when you -- for instance, let's say I would use this.

And then I would be out in public. And they would be like, oh, my -- he's a dog face boy. What happened? You know what I mean?

STU: You know what, Glenn. What does being out in public even matter anymore, to these people? There is it don't out in public. There's just this camera. There's just the social media.

GLENN: But then think about how hollow this is.

Let's say you become famous, because you're so beautiful. But you're only beautiful in the virtual world.

And you get all kinds of attention, and all kinds of love and blah, blah, blah. And you're so hot. And then you go out in the real world, and you're the dog face boy.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: You're not going to want to be out in public anymore.

STU: Right.

There is no, and then you go out in public. Right?

That just ends --

GLENN: It's terrifying.

STU: It ends.

And it's just going to screw with people.

Think of -- think of the teenage girls. We've been talking about it for a while. Who already have all sorts of problems, and what it's doing to their brains.

GLENN: Can I say, where are the women's groups? Do you remember when we used to complain?

STU: Glamour Magazine is Photoshopping. Oh, are they? That's a real problem compared to this.

GLENN: Yeah. Where are those people? I will tell you, I will not -- I started my dad years, just thinking, I would have loved to be a child in this era, because it has everything. You know what I mean?

Anything you want, you have access to. And now, as I have teenagers and I see the pain they're in all the time -- you go to school, and the girl -- my gosh. Girls are so vicious to each other.

You think, you know, I am so sick of hearing about boys and, you know, how bad boys are. And men are.

Girls are vicious. They are absolutely vicious with one another.

But my daughter comes home. My son comes home.

I can't imagine all of the pressures. My sisters had, you know, Vogue magazine, or what was the one you just said? Glamour.

STU: Glamour, Cosmo.

GLENN: Cosmo. They had those. That, you know, I can't live up to that.

STU: Right.

GLENN: This. How is can't daughter or your son -- does it do it to men?

STU: It does. And I haven't -- the transitions don't seem as dramatic with guys, I guess.

GLENN: Of course not.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: It just maybe puts us in pants, instead of cargo shorts.
(laughter)

STU: You just have my shirt no longer has wrinkles.

GLENN: We can't do any more than that.

STU: That's it. We're not scientists here.

GLENN: And isn't that weird that it's mainly for women? That they don't really have it for guys?

Women are already so freaked out about their looks. Guys are like, oh, I've got -- oh, yeah. It's just a piece of baloney been stuck in my beard for a week.

I'm sorry. Thank you.

STU: Yeah. Remove spinach from your teeth.

GLENN: Right. That's all it does. That's all it does.

STU: The guy who is talking about it on Twitter said, the effect seems to do different things to different people. On men in general, it's very subtle. Not so subtle on women, much harsher and unrealistic expectations. But even on men, it's not just makeup. It makes structural changes to the face.

You know, and you just look at this. And you're saying, you know, as we deal with this, think of --

GLENN: It's incredible.

STU: Now even the real people have turned into the AI models. Right?

You're not even seeing people anymore.

Think of every advertisement. Think of every account you follow.

These people will all start using this stuff.

GLENN: Think of this, when they say they airbrush her hips to be a little bit -- no.

No. No. This is so far beyond that.

And it's being done in realtime, to your daughters.


STU: And the market --

GLENN: Get off TikTok.

STU: Yeah. But wait. Just because it comes directly from the Chinese Communist Party. You think I should remove it from my phone?

Why wouldn't I carry it around with me, everywhere, with every piece of monitoring technology, that the Chinese government could ever beg for. Isn't that a better option?

GLENN: I would -- I would love to see if TikTok is doing this to their own people. I highly doubt it.

STU: Lots of times they aren't. Their algorithms often will promote, hey, here's some -- some incredible -- an accomplishment. A female, Chinese scientist. Like, for example, releasing a plague on the -- on the world.

They'll promote these incredible achievements.

GLENN: We like to call her "bat lady."

STU: Bat lady. Here's bat lady. She's -- remember coronavirus? That was her!

GLENN: She changed the world!

STU: She sure did. Look how many millions of capitalists she destroyed.

But they will -- like, these incredible achievements by Chinese citizens, they will promote those in the TikTok algorithm there. And then for us, internal to America, we get people who have had tragedies, who have been -- you know, who are developing Tourette's Syndrome out of nowhere.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: You know, all of the Tide pods.

GLENN: Yeah. You just get all of the -- yeah, you get the dumbest of the dumb, which just --

STU: Dumb. Victimhood. Tragedy.

That's what gets promoted there, to our algorithm.

GLENN: And people think that we're not really in a war with China. They think that -- I mean, even my own family. I -- my wife has TikTok. My wife -- I bet your wife has TikTok.

STU: Good God, of course she does.

Half the time I'm saying this to her, hoping she's listening.

GLENN: Right. And it's like, okay. Guys, we got to stop with TikTok. Got to stop with TikTok. It's really bad. Yeah. I know. I know. It's gathering information on everybody.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's gathering information on everybody. If I would have said, hey. By the way, the Nazis -- the Nazis are back in Germany, Hitler is actually alive. And they have this device where they're gathering all the information on you.

You might say, that's a bad idea. I'm not going to help them.

STU: And I will also mention, their genocide killed far fewer people than the one in China.

GLENN: Thank you.

STU: So, yeah.

I think it's kind of a bad idea. And, you know, look, I think -- this is a debate that will go on until the end of time.

I mean, these -- these -- this is such an egregious one.

Look, Mark Zuckerberg is really annoying. You know, Mark -- I don't think -- I don't want to give my information to Mark Zuckerberg either.

I don't want to give it to Google either. I don't want to give it to Apple either. But like, when it's actually owned by the Chinese Communist Party, is there no line?

I mean, seriously, this party is literally responsible for more deaths than the Nazis. They currently have millions of people in prison camps, and are basically at war with us. They just floated a freaking balloon over our country, to spy on us.

And we're like, I think they can get access to everything I've ever done. And my location at all times. And all my photos. And all the words I've typed and then deleted.

And everything -- they should have access then. They seem like nice people.

I don't know.

Sounds like there's a flaw in the logic somewhere.

Somewhere.

GLENN: When you have -- when you have -- when you have TikTok. Correct me if I'm wrong.

They monitoring everything. So if you do your banking online.

That's all being sent to the Chinese communist government.

They know your banking.

Your banking code. They've got it all.

STU: Certainly, they deny they have that.

GLENN: Of course, they do.

STU: But there have been many security experts and agencies that have come out and said, no. They are doing -- I mean, they have access to basically everything.

GLENN: Everything. Even what you deleted.

So I'm typing, you know what, you SOB, you better -- I better not do that. Delete, delete, delete.

Hey, Mike, you know, I was really disappointed in our conversation. You know what I mean? They have the first draft. They have everything.

STU: Again, a lot of people are like, well, I don't care. I never do anything that I would have a problem with --

GLENN: The Chinese.

STU: -- being public. Or having the Chinese -- I don't do anything. And I get that. A lot of people haven't. For example, I doubt that's true. You know, one of the things we talked about before, is this theory of cloudburst. The cloudburst apocalypse, which is, we put everything up in the cloud. It all sits up there. What if, at some point, AI, for example, hacks all of it at once. And releases all of it. Everything you've typed on a private message, on your computer.

Every photo you've ever put anywhere. What if all of that, for everyone comes out on the same day in a searchable fashion?

Theoretically possible in the future. And, yes. You might think, well, I never did anything. First of all, I doubt it. If everything you ever typed got out there, you're telling me, you wouldn't have friendships that blew up, at the very least? Not to mention, your financial future.

But forget that for a second. You are helping to fund this effort, which is targeting people all around the world. That did do something that might run afoul of the Chinese government.

You're helping fund it. You're giving them money. You're funding the operation, when they go and take down some dissident in a helpless person in some other country.

GLENN: All right. By the way.

STU: You're doing all of that.

GLENN: That's on TikTok, and you'll be able to find the rest of this monologue on TikTok later on this afternoon.