Like an episode of “Black Mirror,” Canadian police livestreamed a press conference on Facebook about a double homicide using a filter that made an officer appear to be a feline/homo sapiens hybrid.
A spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of British Columbia apologized for the “technical difficulties,” and explained that an “automatic setting” on Facebook Live had been switched on. The press conference was re-recorded without the cat filter ― which added whiskers and ears to the officer ― and the new version was posted to Facebook Friday.
A reporter used Twitter to alert the police about the cat filter:
The press conference addressed the apparent double homicide of American Chynna Noelle Deese, 24, who was visiting her Australian boyfriend, Lucas Robertson Fowler, 23, in Canada for vacation. Their bodies were found July 15 on a remote highway in British Columbia.
Police have asked anyone with information to contact them.
The cat filter blunder was particularly painful given the nature of the tragedy addressed in the press conference. However, such an error has happened before. In June, a regional minister in northwest Pakistan made a similar cat filter error during a Facebook press conference.
Here’s the re-recorded press conference from the RCMP: