The Kardashian team is going all out to remove all traces of a photo of a Khloe Kardashian that appears to be unedited and shows a side of hers, few outside of the family get to see. The photograph appeared on Instagram over the weekend and since then the team has been working hard to remove all traces of the "unauthorized" photo.
The image in question shows Khloe, 36, standing by a pool wearing a skimpy leopard print string bikini. The photo appears unfiltered, un-airbrushed and not as flawless as she looks in campaign shots for her brand. According to Page Six, the shot is authentic and soon went viral on social media.
Desperate Effort
Soon after the unedited and un-airbrushed photo got leaked on various online forums, members of the Kardashian PR team reported the posts as copyright infringement, as the photo was being posted without permission. They also threatened legal action.
Many copies of the photo were taken down following the legal threat from the Kardashian team, which called the image "beautiful" but said they wanted it removed from everywhere on the internet because it was unauthorized.
In the very personal image, which is still up on one subreddit, the mother-of-one appears to be in mid-conversation. Her hair is seen pulled up in a ponytail as she holds her phone and flashes a smile at the photographer. Although, Khloe's fans have been linking it, the PR team wants it all gone.
The candid photos is said to have been posted by her maternal grandmother, Mary Jo "MJ" Shannon and was clicked at Kris Jenner's desert compound in La Quinta, California, where the Kardashian and Jenner clan just spent the Easter weekend.
"The color edited photo was taken of Khloé during a private family gathering and posted to social media without permission by mistake by an assistant," Tracy Romulus, chief marketing officer for KKW Brands, said in a statement.
Too Personal
There are reasons Khloe wants to get the snap removed. In the snap, her waistline appears less defined, her curves less dramatic and her skin not as impossibly smooth as it looks in her carefully staged glossy fashion shoots. Naturally, she doesn't want her fans to see her real side.
And now her team is threatening legal action against those who share the photo or don't take it down. "Khloé looks beautiful but it is within the right of the copyright owner to not want an image not intended to be published taken down," Romulus said.
After the photo surfaced on Saturday it spread across the internet before quickly disappearing on many sites. It wasn't long before reports emerged from Redditusers who were asked to remove the photo, with some allegedly receiving legal threats from the Kardashian team of "copyright infringement."
Some people, including subreddit moderators who attempted to share the Khloe photo, were reported for posting 'personal and confidential' information.
Instagram also reportedly alerted accounts about the post being removed because it was reported for copyright infringement, stating the image belonged to Kardashian, with an email linking back to a member of her team.
Understandably, many users felt threatened of being sued. One of the accounts, which posted the image side-by-side with a recent edited photo of Kardashian, removed the photo and wrote, "today was so fucking exhausting. Don't ask me abt the situation bc I legally cannot talk abt it."
Khloe has come under fire in recent years for her changing face and body, with many accusing the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star of brazenly photoshopping her Instagram posts to an extent fans sometimes struggle to recognize her. She has also been accusedof going under the knife and not being honest about it with her fans. In 2019 there was speculation she had a nose job but she has yet to comment on it.
