Is Kenya’s Tik-Tok Queen Azziad Nasenya facing some self-esteem issues?
This question dominated social media for the better part of Monday, 26 July, when Kenyan entertainment blogger Edgar Obare shared a controversial photo of the social media personality.
From the screenshot submitted by one of Edgar’s followers, the 21-year-old seemingly made a rather unsuccessful attempt at manipulating one of her Instagram photos by subtly enhancing her body curves.
“Morning Tea Master, Someone Should Tell Her Tumeona Hii,” read the message.
(Attatched Image Magnified Below)
From the image, some of the lines on the wall in the background look to be curved, which according to some views captured from Twitter experts, is a clear sign of photo manipulation.
“That is the first structurally fit wavy building I have ever seen,” wrote one Kenyan.
But some netizens took to Azziad’s defence.
One who reached out to Edgar Obare shortly after he made the post tried to explain that the image might not be a case of bad Photoshop as presumed, but a faulty feature on the content creator’s phone.
Celebrities and photo manipulations
Across Instagram, you will often find numerous accounts of actors, models, and musicians with altered images on their feed.
Many of the original images are taken at movie premieres, award shows, and other red-carpet events where celebrities already look their best.
Sometimes the photos are later edited with contemporary, and oftentimes unattainable, beauty standards in mind: like pore-less skin and perfectly curves hips.
In fact, in an an effort to fight the potentially harmful effect of unrealistic beauty standards on mental health, Norway became the latest country to amend its law to make it compulsory for content creators to disclose when pictures have been retouched.
The new legislation requires social media influencers and advertisers to attach a disclaimer label to retouched images, like in Azziad’s case.
In Norway, violations to this rule are punishable by fines.
