A Pakistani politician suffered a comical gaffe during a live-streamed press conference.
Shaukat Yousafzai, a regional minister in the northwest of the country, was holding a briefing being shown on Facebook when disaster struck – a cat filter had been mistakenly left on.
As he spoke, the footage was broadcast on his Tehreek-e-Insaf party’s Facebook page and those watching from home couldn’t help but notice the pink ears and black whiskers that suddenly appeared on his face.
According to KP government’s social media team we now have a cat in the cabinet #Filter pic.twitter.com/LNl7zwOfLU
— Mansoor Ali Khan (@_Mansoor_Ali) June 14, 2019
The video was deleted minutes after the press conference but because the internet exists forever and no one who saw it could let this one go, there have been plenty of screenshots making their way onto social media. The mistake was blamed on “human error” by the party.
So this happened today when PTI's SM team forgot to turn off the cat filter while live streaming a press conference on Facebook. @SAYousafzaiPTI looks kinda cute pic.twitter.com/IjjJrua7DL
— Ahsan Hamid Durrani (@Ahsan_H_Durrani) June 14, 2019
"Yesterday, while covering a press briefing held by KP's Information Minister Shoukat Yousf Zai, a 'cat filter' was witnessed by the viewers which was removed within a few minutes," the party admitted in a "clarification" issued on Twitter.
"I wasn't the only one - two officials sitting alongside me were also hit by the cat filter," Yousafzai said to the AFP news agency.
You can't beat this! Khyber Pakhtunkhwa govt's live presser on Facebook with cat filters.. 😹 pic.twitter.com/xPRBC2CH6y
— Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) June 14, 2019
At the very least, at least his briefing got some attention.
