The application of Gabrelyanov's son, which shows the "true face", was criticized by the Western media. It's about the MakeApp service. It is a neural network program that allows you to remove or add makeup to people in photos and videos. It was created by the son of the founder of the Russian media holding NewsMedia Aram Gabrelyanov Ashot.
The service was launched this spring, and in the fall it has a new function - you can now “remove” and “apply” makeup not only on photos, but also on videos. In his Instagram, Gabrelyanov wrote about the application: “Press UnMakeup, there will be no trace of powder, shadows and mascara on your face. Press MakeUp, Conchita Wurst envies you."
Many Western publications, among them New York Magazine, Huffington Post and BuzzFeed, accused the app of sexism - it shows women in an unattractive light, as well as racism - the program supposedly brightens the skin of black women.
And foreign users of social networks were divided into two camps: some are perplexed why anyone might need such a program at all, others openly criticize the creators of the service. Why did the app generate a wave of negative comments in the US? Alina Krasnova, editor of the "Site Stars" section of Cosmo.ru, argues:
- I think that compared to other photo editing apps, it doesn't make a lot of practical sense. And maybe because of this, programmers, knowing that they are creating a certain product that will collect their own wave of hype, like dyeing hair in green and purple colors, spread everything, then stopped. Maybe they didn't think about some kind of reaction. Secondly, since this application was developed by Russian programmers, the issue of racism is not so acute in our country, therefore, most likely, people did not realize that it was not necessary to whiten a person's skin or round his eyes to make him attractive. Of course, the application is incorrect.
- Could someone use it here?
- I have not seen that any of it was wildly popular. Surely someone used it, just because we do not have such a question, although there are a lot of different nationalities in our country. And there are people with different cut, eye shape and skin color. It's just that it is somehow not customary to focus on the racist issue. This is probably why the people who used it decided not to be indignant.
- Is it a popular topic to see how the stars look without makeup?
- Stars without makeup regularly post themselves. You can go to the pages of the star you are interested in and, most likely, with a probability of 90% there will be photos with and without makeup. You don't need an application for this to find out how the stars live outside the stage and outside the filming.
Ashot Gabrelyanov himself, in a conversation with a journalist for Meduza, said that the program could be useful for girls who want to make a video call without makeup, and for men who want to find out how a woman looks without makeup. The creator of the application also stated that the total number of MakeApp users is over a million. In the reviews, some users write that the application processes only a few files for free, and requires you to pay for subsequent experiments. Russian users note that the idea of the service is good, but the execution still leaves much to be desired: the program often freezes, “erases” people’s own eyelashes and eyebrows, discolors the photo and makes the image cloudy
