With Instagram and Snapchat face filters dappling every selfie on your feed, and the horrifying ethical implications of deepfakes, you’d think that people would know better than to believe everything they see, but apparently not.
Fans are in shock after an online glitch on July 25 revealed that a popular Chinese personality, believed to be a young woman, is actually 58-years-old. Qiaobiluo Dianxia, also known as Your Highness Qiaobiluo, had amassed a following of 130,000 followers as a gaming personality on Douyu, a Chinese live-streaming platform that allows viewers to donate money to streamers, without even showing their faces.
Qiaobiluo had previously uploaded pictures onto the site using face-editing apps to morph her appearance into that of a young woman. She had also posted that she would meet her followers in real life for 100,000 yuan (approximately £11,970). “I can’t show my face until I receive gifts worth 100,000 yuan ($11,950). After all, I’m a good-looking host,” she said in a previous stream.
But during a live stream, where she was masking her face behind a filter, a technological glitch revealed her true identity to over 100,000 fans. According to Asia One, the 58-year-old didn’t realise her mask had been removed until fans started leaving the stream and cancelling their donations towards the channel.
Despite all the drama, Qiabiluo – who’s now being called Granny – hasn’t suffered any setbacks. In fact, she has over 650,000 followers and the numbers are still growing, as well as Granny’s new ambition to be... a rapper. I guess no publicity is bad publicity, and all that.