Gross Men Are Trying To Remove Filters On TikTok Videos To See Women’s Naked Bodies
What originally started as an empowering trend, the Silhouette Challenge has since been hijacked by grotty men desperately trying to see women naked.
In recent weeks, TikTok’s red filter ‘Silhouette Challenge’ has been taking over social media.
Similar to the ‘‘Buss It’ Challenge‘ from the start of the year, the Silhouette Challenge is essentially designed to be a thirst trap, but also a tool of self-empowerment that helps people share that they feel comfortable in their bodies.
But in recent days, gross men have begun to turn the innocent trend into something more sinister by trying to uncover the “nude” bodies behind the filters in these videos. So let’s unpack what is going on:
What Is The Silhouette Challenge?
Over the month of January, the Silhouette Challenge has gone viral on social media.
Characterised by its distinctive red filter that turns the person in the video into a silhouette of themselves, the hashtag has already garnered a massive 239.2 million views on TikTok alone.
Set to a mash-up of Paul Anka’s ‘Put Your Head On My Shoulder’ and Doja Cat’s ‘Freak’, the Silhouette Challenge starts off with a person acting innocent near a doorway until the beat drops and the lights switch over to red. From here, the person — who is usually a woman now dressed in only underwear or is totally nude — moves around seductively, or poses, to the music.
To get this red effect, most people have found it easiest to shift over to Snapchat and use the ‘Vin Rouge’ filter to give the illusion of red lighting. However, some have gone so far as to set up red bulbs in their homes, or simply just use editing software to place this red filter over themselves after filming.
These TikToks are meant to be sexy and mysterious, which is part of the reason why the challenge is so popular. As people are hidden by shadows and light in the Silhouette Challenge, it’s easy to understand why so many women feel comfortable participating in the trend. Even major celebrities like Tiffany Haddish, Common and Lizzo have hopped on the trending, finding comfort in the level of anonymity and freedom the filter brings.
While the trend may seem frivolous to some, everyone has the right to feel sexy and beautiful in their own skin — and if it takes a silly TikTok challenge for that to happen, then so be it. But men have since hijacked the trend out of selfishness, and instilled fear into women who have already partaken in the trend causing panic online.
What Are The Men Doing?
Due to the red filter used in the Silhouette Challenge helping disguise the features of the body, many woman taking part in the challenge opt for minimal to no clothing. After all, no one can really see the details of their body anyway.
As a result of this minimal clothing, a large number of men have preyed on these women and have begun trying to remove this filter to uncover their nude bodies. By tinkering around with the colours, saturation and brightness of the original TikToks, men have been somewhat able to remove the red overlay and reveal more previously hidden details in these silhouette clips.
A quick search on YouTube also reveals that several men have even started to share tutorials to “help” other people violate these women’s consent in their own time, too.
A number of the tutorials still up on YouTube.
The justification? That despite these women quite literally only agreeing to allow people to see a silhouette of their body, they apparently deserve having their consent violated because they chose to partake in the challenge and upload this nude (or semi-nude) content themselves.
As a result of men just not quite understanding why the obsession with wanting to see non-consenting, and often underage, females naked is an issue, women have had to band together to warn those who are considering making their own Silhouette Challenge.
Four days ago, photographer Kai Lee shared some vital information to the women of TikTok regarding the outfits they wear because of the men going out of their way to “revert [the images] back”.
“Just make sure you’re being cognisant of what you’re wearing before you do all the editing for the final product,” Lee warns in the TikTok. “Anyone can easily take those images, and revert them back to the original — just know it’s really easy to put it back to the original.”
Similarly, another woman gave a little more information in her warning by explaining that because red is a primary colour, it’s easy to remove with the right software.
PSA: if y’all do the #silhouettechallenge please do not do it completely naked. Long story short, red is a primary color that can be easily removed with video editing. If you don’t want your naked highly visible butt shared on the web.. you know the rest
— most hated 7 fig nig (@ZySavy) January 28, 2021
Meanwhile, Danyelle Thomas, one concerned woman, voiced her concerns and grievances on Facebook about the alarming number of men trying to justify removing the filters, and even creating tutorials, to violate the consent of so many women.
“When reminded that this is gross, creepy, and non-consenting, men respond that women are always finding ways to make themselves victims and they shouldn’t have been naked on the internet,” Thomas posted to Facebook.
“Yes, the same men going through extraordinary lengths to be creepy are finger wagging women about what they shouldn’t put on the internet. Because of all of the things men lack — including ethics and boundaries — they’re never short on audacity.”
I just think this silhouette-removing filter conversation exposes just how much several men still do not understand consent, and still victim blame (“don’t put your videos on the internet then”) despite years of educative conversations around it.
— Folake (@CiCiheartsyou) January 29, 2021
Thankfully, some social platforms have already taken a stand against this invasive wave of video editors violating the consent of these unsuspecting women. Reddit has banned the r/SilhouetteUnfiltered sub-Reddit that was dedicated to posting these edited videos without the red filter.
Similarly, Twitter has suspended the accounts of several people who were taking previously taking requests for Silhouette Challenge videos to edit. YouTube, however, still has not taken down the alarming number of these tutorials put up by men — some of which that are even monetised for their own benefit.
So, Is It Even Possible To Remove The Silhouette Challenge Filter?
Look, not completely.
While some have proven that tinkering with the video’s colour settings can reveal more of the details that were previously hidden under the red filter, no amount of editing can completely show the natural state of a video prior to filters.
But even though these editing tricks can only reveal so much, if you’re thinking of creating your own Silhouette Challenge, just be smart and make sure you’re wearing underwear at the very least to save yourself from people potentially using your self-empowerment against you.
Update: Friday, 5 Feb 2021:
A YouTube spokesperson has since released a statement to Junkee regarding the alarming number of red light removal tutorials still on the platform.
“Videos that contain nudity can not be re-uploaded on YouTube as they violate our adult content policies,” the spokesperson told Junkee. “Additionally we will remove any content uploaded on YouTube that has been altered to reveal participant’s bodies in a way that was not intended by the original uploaded.”
At the time of update, a quick search of “remove red filter silhouette challenge” on YouTube still shows a number of these tutorials live on the site.
Michelle Rennex is a senior writer at Junkee. She tweets at @michellerennex.