Video blogging is one of the most popular mediums for people to get themselves out in the open, even more so thanks to the addition of tools such as face filters. However, these add-ons don’t always function as intended, and one blogger’s folly with the tool made her infamous.
The video blogger in question hails from China and goes by the persona “Your Highness Qiao Biluo”. The blogger was known as being a young, long haired woman with big eyes, fair skin, and “sweet and healing voice”. Reports also say that she was worshipped as a “cute goddess”, and had more than 100000 followers on Douyu, one of China’s popular livestreaming platform.
Moving on, the glitch supposedly happened when Your Highness Qiao Biluo did a joint-live stream with another popular blogger on the platform. At some point in time, the face filter app decided to malfunction on Your Highness Qiao Biluo, ultimately giving her loyal viewers a glimpse of her real face; their cute goddess was a not-so-cute 58-year old woman who clearly looked nothing like the person she had led them to believe she was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8m4jYaALIA
There is some bitter sense of irony to the story; according to multiple reports, fans of Your Highness Qiao Biluo had urged her to show her face and remove the filter. She refused the requests, saying that she wouldn’t adhere to their request until she received gifts worth 100000 Yuan (~RM 59942). The even greater irony? One fan apparently donated 40000 Yuan (~RM23976), the largest donation ever made during that session.
As you would expect, many of her fans soon began withdrawing both from Your Highness Qiao Biluo’s channel and their donations of the “ugly” truth was revealed to them. Unfortunately for Qiao Biluo and her blogger partner, they didn’t realise the problem until they saw the number of followers deserting them in droves from the paid VIP room. By that time, it was too late.
The use of face filters by online bloggers in China – and around the world – is not uncommon. These tools help enable the streamer or start to reshape their faces in any style they desire. From clean and clear, poreless complexion to some rather radical changes to blogger’s facial structure; if the app can pull it off, then so be it.
What is even scarier is the emergence of AR-assisted face filters. These filters don’t so much as just alter a user’s complexion or facial structure; these filters can slap an entirely different face on to anyone else’s.
In Your Highness Qiao Biluo’s case, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for her; according to the BBC, the negative attention from the revelation had netted her approximately 500000 new followers, and that number is still growing.
(Source: Lychee News via BBC, Kotaku, Engadget // Image: Kotaku)
