Like all other sagas concerning local social media “influencers” (that national day video, SGInstaBabes, Faves Asia), people kinda forgot about the whole Daryl Aiden Yow scandal after a while and moved on to other less frivolous things.
It’s been months since the popular Instagram personality issued an apology for using stock photos for his posts and appearing to claim that he shot those photos. By all accounts, the 27-year-old’s shenanigans seemed to have made him quit the “influencer” life for good, with all his Instagram posts taken down, except for the one that had his statement on the issue. That was back on June 21.
In a bit of good news for Yow’s friends and fans who stood by him during his tumultuous period, the man is back on Instagram. Yesterday, he made his first post on the platform since the saga — a symbolic image that indicates that he’s leaving his plagiaristic past behind.
“Mistakes come with a lesson,” Yow wrote as a caption to the post that showed prints of his previously stolen images being burnt up. “And with a lesson, comes change.”
Dramatic stuff. But to ensure that no one could accuse him of being a hack again, he also posted clips that showed what went on behind the scenes of the photoshoot, including his crew and the set-up on site.
His reputation and popularity didn’t seem to take much of a hit since the exposé, considering the come-back post already garnered over 12,000 likes and hundreds of supportive comments. A superb contrast to how it was back then when his account was flooded with hundreds of critical remarks and insults.
The saga
‘Twas back in June when a local online media platform called Mothership absolutely decimated the works of the young social media ”influencer”. Reporters dissected his acclaimed shots and found that a lot of his posts (even the sponsored ones) on Instagram can actually be found on other sites. In a phone interview with Must Share News, Yow defended his work, claiming that his clients are aware that stock photos are used for his posts, and he never stated that he took the shots in his caption on Instagram. The claims were then debunked in another Mothership report.
The exposé was careful not to outrightly state that he stole some pictures and claimed it for his own. Eventually, Yow finally admitted his faults and apologized for misleading his followers, hoping that he’ll be able to earn people’s trust in the future.
Instead of causing his fans to leave him, the major exposé actually propelled Yow’s name onto a bigger spotlight — Mothership effectively helped him gain thousands of followers, a number that now stands at over 102,000.
As for us, we’ll never forget how the dude didn’t even know that the sun and the moon are two entirely different astronomical bodies until earlier this year.
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