Snapchat has debunked a popular internet theory that its new crying face filter was inspired by actress Amber Heard crying in court. In a statement to TMZ, the social media network clarified the situation.

The filter is simply an augmented-reality lens that you superimpose over people’s visage, turning them into a blubbering mess like a virtual Greek tragedy mask, for the digitally uninformed. Since its debut last week, the feature has racked up over 1.3 billion Snapchat impressions as users across the internet make crying faces over recordings.

The actress was overtaken with emotion during her testimony earlier this month, crying as she recounted alleged facts of the connection before the jury.

Her much-anticipated testimony came less than two weeks before the release of a new Snapchat filter that allows users to pretend to be weeping their eyes out.

As a result, there has been the talk among app users that Heard’s two days of testimony inspired the brand new filter.

For example, one person wrote on Twitter: “You can’t tell me that new crying filter is not based on Amber Heard.”

Another wrote: “Has anyone else realized that the crying filter on Snapchat looks suspiciously like Amber Heard’s face from when she’s crying on the stand?”

A third claimed: “There’s a filter of Amber Heard’s crying face.”

Since then, an app official has debunked this widely held assumption regarding the crying filter.

They told TMZ that the software had been in the works for around six months and that it had been in development long before Heard testified in the defamation case. The media platforms giant also told the magazine that it would never make light of a domestic abuse situation.

The fact that Snapchat also developed a filter that has the exact opposite effect on users’ faces – allowing them to grin from ear to ear – may bolster Snapchat’s claim that their latest filter has nothing to do with Heard. As a result, a sad face was an obvious follow-on filter.

Source: vt.co