Facebook changes 'feeling fat' emoji after protest

Jessica Guynn | USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is replacing its "feeling fat" emoji with "feeling stuffed" after thousands of people signed an online petition to protest that it promoted online body shaming.

Catherine Weingarten of the group Endangered Bodies started the Change.org petition last month, saying "fat is not a feeling" and use of a chubby emoji with a double chin can be harmful to people with eating disorders and encourages negative body image.

The protest used the hashtag #FatIsNotaFeeling on social media.

"When Facebook users set their status to 'feeling fat,' they are making fun of people who consider themselves to be overweight, which can include many people with eating disorders," Weingarten, a graduate student at Ohio State University, told ABC News.

The emoji is one of more than 100 "feelings" that people can add when updating their status on Facebook.

Facebook at first resisted changing the emoji but said it was in talks with activists.

MoMo Zhou, spokeswoman for the giant social network, said in an emailed statement: "We've heard from our community that listing 'feeling fat' as an option for status updates could reinforce negative body image, particularly for people struggling with eating disorders. So we're going to remove 'feeling fat' from the list of options."