Police in Vancouver, British Columbia, apologized Friday after a popular social media filter was used accidentally during a livestreamed press conference regarding the murders of two people.
The video showed Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Janelle Shoihet standing at a podium as she spoke to reporters about murder victims Chynna Noelle Deese of North Carolina and Lucas Robertson Fowler of Australia, when the cat filter came on and applied cat ears and whiskers to her face.
The police department confirmed on Twitter that the filter had been in the “automatic setting” mode and said it is working to have it turned off.
Since the ill-timed incident, the department has rerecorded the press conference and posted it to its Facebook page.
A similar instance happened during a Pakistani politician’s briefing with the press in June.
Regional Minister Shaukat Yousafzai, along with other individuals in attendance, recorded a Facebook live video with the cat filter turned on while they discussed a series of serious topics.
Reports said the video continued for a few minutes until someone noticed the error and turned the filter off.
The video was reportedly meant to keep constituents interested in local happenings, but this time it attracted attention for another reason entirely.
“It didn’t take long for commentators to pounce on the error, with plenty of pictures appearing online before the original video was hastily deleted, and the inevitable online mockery followed,” CNN reported.
The political party later posted a clarification via Twitter. “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 statement read.
However, Yousafzai seemed to find the humor in the incident.
“I wasn’t the only one,” he told Agence France-Presse. “Two officials sitting along me were also hit by the cat filter.”