A LIVE STREAM of a press briefing with members of the Pakistani government was broadcast on Facebook with a ‘cat filter’ appearing over officials’ faces. 

The filter applied animated cat ears and whiskers to regional minister Shaukat Yousafzai, who appeared on the camera during the briefing last Friday. 

Viewers made jokes in comments below the stream during the feed and images circulated shortly after. 

It was later explained as “human error” by a “hard-working volunteer” in a statement posted on Twitter. 

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It read: “Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf’s social media team is deemed to be the pioneers of social media in Pakistan. We not only pride ourselves in bringing Pakistani politics to [the] internet but also feel content in setting high standards.”

It went on to say “whilst covering a press briefing… a ‘cat filter’ was witnessed the viewers which was removed within [a] few minutes”. 

It said the incident was investigated and “all necessary actions have been taken” to ensure it does not happen again. 

Following the incident Yousafzai said it was a mistake and shouldn’t be taken so seriously. 

“I wasn’t the only one, two officials sitting along me were also hit by the cat filter.

“The cat filter was turned on by mistake,” he said, adding “let’s not take everything so seriously.”

With reporting from © – AFP 2019