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Dutch Instagram Influencers Face Backlash for Ebola Selfies

The influencers made themselves appear to have the deadly disease through makeup.

Dutch celebrities and influencers are facing backlash for sharing “ebola selfies” on social media, according to the Daily Mail. The gruesome selfies of bloodied, smiling faces are part of a Doctors Without Borders Netherlands campaign called “Face It” that seeks to raise awareness for ebola. The campaign has been criticized as tone-deaf and inappropriate by many online. Kristine Verheyden, a blogger from Belgium, shared three photos of herself in the startling makeup to her over 15,000 followers on Instagram. Despite calling for people to donate money to Doctors Without Borders in their captions, many followers felt the campaign only ridiculed the deadly disease. One commenter who identified herself as an MSF nurse working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo wrote, “ I am very concerned seeing this Ebola awareness campaign... these images are very stigmatizing to our patients with Ebola. We need to treat our patients with dignity and not treat them as objects of horror.”