A fashion model and social media “influencer” in Hong Kong hoped to save face by deleting Instagram posts which her followers discovered to be stolen from Google Images.
Sadelle Yeung, whom Hong Kong’s Apple Daily described as a “key opinion leader,” has more than 91,000 followers on the platform.
Often seen traveling around the world, she even managed to appear in a travel show called “A Seek in Singapore.”
However, after she posted a series of photos about heading to Italy for vacation last month, eagle-eyed Instagram users did some digging.
The result was a wave of backlash from users accusing her of stealing images after doing a quick Google search.
For one post, a photo she claimed she took in Italy appeared to be a cropped version of another found on the website of an Australian travel company.
The entire fiasco reportedly prompted Yeung to take down a whopping total of 95 photos earlier this week.
A parody account called @copywithsadelle curated some of the images, including travel shots, food snaps, and flat lays.
Here are some of the “stolen” photos:
Yeung apparently acknowledged her “mistake” in response to a former follower who called her out.
“Everyone makes mistakes, and it’s not fair to conflate one mistake into a big one. I accept everyone’s feedback good and bad,” she said in a post.
What do you think?
Featured Images via Instagram / sadelle (Left), copywithsadelle (Right)
