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- BBC World News
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3 hours
Image source, Nippon Television Network System
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The man named Zonggu had used photo editing apps to look like a young woman.
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Photos of a smiling young woman on her motorcycle gained popularity among social media users in Japan and began to garner thousands of “likes.”
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But some eagle-eyed fans noticed that some things did not fit in the images.
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His arm appeared to be very hairy in a photo and a mirror reflection showed a different face.
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A television show revealed that Twitter user @azusagakuyuki it was actually a 50-year-old man named Zonggu.
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And he himself admitted to using photo editing apps to create an alter ego.
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“Up to 1,000 likes”
Zonggu told the TV show Getsuyou Kara Yofukashi (“Sitting late since Monday”) who wanted to increase his presence on social media and he believed that people would rather see a “younger beautiful woman” rather than an older man.
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“Nobody wants to see what a normal middle-aged man, who takes care of his motorcycle and takes photos, posts on his account,” he said.
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Zonggu acknowledged that he had been surprised by the results of editing apps like FaceApp.
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“First I tried and then it turned out to be quite nice. Now I get up to 1,000 ‘likes’, whereas before it used to be below 10” on each photo, he described.
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“I got carried away while trying to make it cuter.”
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Image source, Twitter
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Zonggu’s followers on Twitter increased significantly when he posted his alter ego.
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The revelation of Zonggu’s identity on the television show caused a mostly positive reaction among his more than 21,000 followers.
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“I watched the TV show and became your fan!“One user wrote. Another said,” You have magical abilities!
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The software Editing like FaceApp allows users to change the appearance of their faces in photos, for example to look younger or older.
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But these kinds of tools also raise concerns about privacy and security.
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Even the FBI issued a warning in 2019 that FaceApp developed in Russia represented a “potential counterintelligence threat”.
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