Following a backlash in New Zealand caused by the discovery of culturally inappropriate filters on social media apps, the social media corporation that controls Snapchat removed filters that displayed photos of sacred Mori tattoos on users’ faces.
T’moko tattoo-themed filters are widely available on social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, according to a Radio New Zealand investigation. T-moko is a taonga, or treasure, for New Zealand’s indigenous people, and it represents the wearer’s Mori ancestry. The filters have reignited debate over how sacred cultural artefacts are handled on tech platforms and whether New Zealand should provide stronger legal protections for them.
At the time of publication, The Guardian had seen at least ten of these user-created Instagram filters, all with names that included the words ‘Mori’ or ‘moko’. Meta, Instagram’s parent company, did not respond to a request for comment. After a New Zealand-based writer raised concerns about the tools in the Mori community, Snap, which owns Snapchat, informed the Guardian that it had removed one such filter, known as a Lens, from its platform, along with a duplicate.
In an unidentified statement, the company told the Guardian that ‘we encourage our community to create inclusive Lenses, and all Lenses shared on Snapchat must adhere to our community guidelines. We make it abundantly clear that we do not tolerate content that demeans, defames, or promotes discrimination’. Mori is the only one who can use T moko. One expert claimed that because each is tailored to the wearer’s ancestry, multiple social media users using the same filter exacerbated the ‘huge disrespect’ caused by the ‘highly offensive’ gadgets.
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