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City of Boston pulls Snapchat filters after criticism

BOSTON — Days after releasing new Snapchat filters, the City of Boston is pulling them from the social media app.

A post on the city's website on Aug. 2 described the filters, which were geographically based on different neighborhoods. Not all neighborhoods had filters yet, due to some of them being rejected from Snapchat due to design guidelines.

The filters were architecture and landmarks that were supposed to represent each neighborhood, including Harvard Stadium for Allston and a triple decker for Dorchester.

It was the airport representing East Boston that caused issues for that community, with some voicing disapproval on Twitter.

The Press Office for the city said that the filters were posted and submitted to Snapchat before receiving approval. Once they decided to remove the filters, the city said it reached out to Snapchat to have them removed, but the process takes a few days.

"Moving forward, the Mayor's Office will be soliciting feedback from each community to ensure any published filters appropriately reflect the neighborhood they represent," said the press office.

The city's blog post said the Department of Innovation and Technology’s Design Team made the filters. In total, they had designed 15 Snapchat filters.

According to Snapchat, about 95 percent of the unique geofilters are created by Snapchatters themselves.