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Accidental Kitty Cat Filter Undermines Pakistani Minister's Serious Livestream

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An artistic recreation of the incident.
An artistic recreation of the incident.
Image: Gizmodo/PTI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

No, Shaukat Yousafzai is not a furry. The regional Pakistani minister just happened to be on the wrong (perhaps right?) end of a social media snafu. During a press briefing that was streamed on Facebook Live, an AR cat filter was left on, leaving Yousafzai with dainty pink ears, whiskers, and a bit of a blush.

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Yousafzai wasn’t the only one either. Two other officials were spotted with cat ears and whiskers. According to CNN, the politician was addressing a variety of local issues at the live event. Viewers had a good time laughing at the gaffe on Facebook, but the video was promptly deleted from Facebook a few minutes after the press conference.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party—of which Yousafzai is a member—issued a clarification on Twitter on the issue. In it, the party said the goof was caused by a “human error” from a volunteer, and that “all necessary actions have been taken to avoid such incident in future” by strictly sticking to live coverage protocols.

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For his part, Yousafzai seems to be taking his internet notoriety in stride. According to the BBC, it was broadcast on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s official Facebook page and Yousafzai later told reporters that it was a “mistake” and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

The video may have been deleted, but thankfully the screen grabs live on. If only U.S. politics were this sort of entertaining and not despair-inducing.