After the racist attacks to the new one Arielthe famous little mermaid that Disney has chosen to entrust to the interpretation of Halle Baileysomeone on Twitter tried to change skin color of the actress: from black to white.
The account that posted the video, @vandalibm, has been suspended and the video was removed from Twitter, albeit various copies of the short movie continue to circulate on the social network.
The Twitter user who shared the edited Disney imagesextracted from the teaser announcing the new film “The little Mermaid” due out in May 2023, it specified that artificial intelligence was used. And in her original tweet she stated that “Ariel has been fixed” and that, if desired, whoever created the clip could edit the entire movie in just 24 hours. Then he corrected the shot, evidently overwhelmed by criticism: “I shared this clip for educational purposes only, please don’t interpret it in a racist way” wrote @vandalibm before his account was removed.
The analysis
Artificial intelligence? It is not neutral at all
by Andrea Daniele Signorelli
The true author of the video in which Ariel’s skin color is changed is @TenGazillionIQ, which has about 7,000 followers and boasts a PhD in Artificial intelligence. There is no trace of the altered Disney images on his account.
The original Disney teaser has been viewed on major video and social media platforms more than 104 million times. The images aroused thrilling reactions of joy all over the world at the sight of Halle Bailey as the little mermaid. Many, however, were the racist comments. For some users, on social media, the Disney choice would not be respectful of the original character and the fans, because the latter would be linked to a very specific image of the protagonist.