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Singaporean TV host Denise Keller threatens to take legal action against yoga teacher

(Photo: Denise Keller/Facebook)
(Photo: Denise Keller/Facebook)

[Updated on Friday 23 February 2018, 10:46am: Added further details on the number of videos involved in the dispute as well as the recent online attacks targetted at Denise Keller]

Singaporean model and TV host Denise Keller is involved in a tiff with a yogi surrounding the use of content.

Based on social media posts by the 35-year-old and yoga practitioner Marysia Do, the argument has been going on for nearly a month after Keller sent an email in January asking Do to remove a number of posts from her social media channels that had featured the former MTV VJ in it.

Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore understands that the content involved in the dispute consists of up to 100 video posts, most of which are reposts of at least 15 videos that were shot in 2016, as well as the image thumbnails of some of these videos.

Keller said on Facebook that the videos were shot and edited by herself in Singapore, using her own equipment.

“They were shot for fun and not endorsement, back when she was a yoga instructor here in Singapore,” said Keller on Thursday (22 February), on both her Facebook and Instagram accounts. However, things took a turn after Keller felt that the photo and video posts were beginning to look like they were “endorsing” Do’s yoga business in the US. Keller also added that she was not paid to be featured on those videos, contrary to what Do had claimed in a post on 20 February.

I believe that it is important that people not be allowed to utilise false endorsement to promote themselves or their products,” said Keller.

According to Do’s social media post, the American yoga practitioner said that Keller had “claimed ownership” to a video which Do and her husband had spent thousands of dollars to produce as well as photos that didn’t have Keller in them. The video was shot in Do’s home in the US and had featured Keller in it.

In response to Do’s social media post, Keller has labelled Do’s story as “falsehoods” and has threatened to take legal action.

“I have hired a law firm and will vindicate my name and place the true facts before the Court… Nobody should be at the mercy of fake news and cyberbullying,” said Keller, who has since been getting attacks from netizens online with the hashtag “#SincerityWins”.

The duo have appeared in several yoga demonstration videos together prior to this debacle. Do, a former yoga teacher at Pure Yoga, has been practicing yoga for about 15 years, while Keller, who became a certified teacher about four years ago, has been practicing yoga for 20 years.

Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore has reached out to both parties for comment.

Photo: Marysia Weiss/Facebook
Photo: Marysia Weiss/Facebook

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