Filters have always been essential to social media. Whether it was the dog filter on Snapchat that had middle schoolers in a chokehold for years or facetune filters that get rid of blemishes, filters have steered trends and discourse. Now, their roles are changing. 

On TikTok, any user can upload filters for others to use. This allows for artists and programmers to spread fun, new ways to interact with the platform. Often, games are created like Laura Gouillon’s “My red flags” or “what type of utensil you are” filters. However, Jourdan Johnson has revolutionized the use of filters in times of social movements. 

Her “Filter for Good” donates the money she makes from the Effect Creator Rewards towards supporting Palestinian victims of the war in Gaza. TikTok users across the world worked together to collect seeds by drawing on their screen in masses. The Effect Creator Awards requires that to generate revenue, a filter has to be used 200,000 times and after it meets the minimum, the effect can only make $14,000. Specifically, the fund states that within 90 days of the filter being published every 500,000 videos will pay a creator $700, but every 100,000 videos posted after the 90 day period generates $140. So Johnson was under a strict deadline to generate her maximum revenue and met it easily. 

In one of her TikTok videos, Jourdan states that the filter made the max $14,000 in only 10 days of being live. From the money she generated quickly, Jourdan donated $7,000 to Doctors Without Borders and bought $7,000 worth of eSims for Gazans. Her filter made an extremely large impact on organizations supporting victims in Gaza and introduced a new form of social media activism.  

However, we should still be conscious when choosing to support people through social media. While Jourdan kept to her word of supporting Gaza with the filter’s proceeds, many creators could abuse the crisis for their own benefit. A new form of slacktivism has developed and it’s important to do research on the movements and people you choose to support. It’s incredibly easy to blindly follow someone with a good message, but most people don’t have good intentions. 

Effect creators across the platform are designing watermelon-themed filters to continue to help those who are being affected most by Israeli attacks. So many people can feel lost and overwhelmed about how to act in times of crisis like these, especially when devastation is across the world. The Effect Creator Rewards influenced a new form of activism that empowers paralyzed individuals to act in small ways that lead to big impacts.