Pakistan minister streamed live as a cat after app ‘error’
A POLITICIAN in northwestern Pakistan gave a press conference that was streamed live on Facebook with the “cat filter” turned on, giving him onscreen whiskers and ears.
The online stream of regional minister Shaukat Yousafzai speaking with journalists went viral on Friday after a member of his social media team accidentally activated the filter on the social network.
Comments started pouring in as Facebook users noticed pink catlike ears and whiskers had appeared on the heads of the minister and two accompanying officials.
There’s “a cat in the cabinet”, one said. Others were more literal: “Shaukat Yousafzai looks like a cat – Miaow miaow miaow.”
The video was deleted minutes after the press conference from the official Facebook page of the Pakistan Tehreeke-insaf (PTI) party, which is in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
However images from the press conference were still available on social media.
Mr Yousafzai confirmed the incident and told AFP it happened by accident.
“The cat filter was turned on by mistake,” said Mr Yousafzai. “Let’s not take everything so seriously. I wasn’t the only one – two officials sitting along me were also hit by the cat filter.”
The live-stream continued with the whiskers and ears in place, even after the error was pointed out by users.
A press statement issued by the PTI social media team said the incident happened because of “human error”.