Police Accidentally Delivered A Homicide Press Conference With A Cat Filter
On July 19th, 2019, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police held a homicide conference that they live-streamed on Facebook. They discussed a double murder involving 23-year-old Lucas Fowler and 24-year-old Chynna Deese, whose bodies were found along a remote highway earlier in the week.
As expected, the police's delivery was serious and somber. At least, it would have been, if Facebook's cat filter hadn't been on the entire time.
During the stream, sergeant Janelle Shoihet sported pink cat whiskers and ears as she discussed the recent case. While the filter has its charm, it's probably not what the policemen were going for.
Screenshots soon flooded the internet as Twitter users tried to alert the police of their mistake. Eventually, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police replied that they were aware of the issue. "Yes we are aware," they posted on Twitter, "and addressing it as it's an automatic setting. Thank you, we will rectify and issue a video shortly."
Now, most people who have used Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat filters know that they aren't "automatic settings." You have to swipe right to activate the cat face, which users quickly pointed out.
As most people would expect, Twitter users quickly jumped on the joke. Many people compared it to last month's Pakistani conference featuring government officials who also turned on the cat filter accidentally.
The press conference eventually corrected the issue as they said. At the same time, Canadian government officials labeled the mistake as a "human error," rather than the "automatic setting" that the police previously stated.
