Facebook removes 'feeling fat' status option and emoji after campaign

Social network responds to petition from anti-body shaming group to get rid of status option and double-chin emoji

Facebook has removed the "fat" option from its list of "feelings" available as part of its status feature, apparently in response to a Change.org petition which gathered almost 17,000 signatures.

Playwright Catherine Weingarten and a group campaigning against negative body image, Endangered Bodies, argued that "fat" is not, in fact, a feeling, and that the status option - along with an illustrative emoji face with a double-chin - was derisive to overweight people and damaging to those struggling with body image.