Facial recognition can be used for a wide variety of purposes, but eastern Chinese city Suzhou has turned to such technology for a totally unexpected reason: to fight against people wearing pajamas in public.

In just a few words, what city officials wanted to do was look after people adopting this so-called “uncivilized behavior” using facial recognition systems and then, with the help of public shaming, convince them not to do it anymore.

Last weekend, the Suzhou management department identified a total of seven offenders and took to social media to publish not only photos taken by surveillance systems, but also part of their names, government identification numbers, and location data where they were spotted wearing pajamas in public.

The post, which has later been removed because of the public backlash, presented photos showing both men and women wearing pajamas, including a Ms. Dong who according to The NYT was wearing “a plush pink robe, matching pants and orange pointy flats” while she was walking on a street.

Wearing pajamas in public has become a common practice in China, as many find this outfit extremely comfortable. Authorities, however, have tried to fight against this trend for several years already, including using so-called “pajama policemen” that were sent to patrol neighborhoods back in 2009.

Facial recognition in China

While many don’t see any issue in wearing pajamas in public, others are more worried with how China uses facial recognition across the country.

The European Union has recently asked for a five-year ban on facial recognition in public spaces, emphasizing that such a technology needs to be better regulated before it’s widely adopted by governments on the continent.

China, on the other hand, turns to facial recognition as often as possible, so similar systems are currently being used for both small and big problems, including on catching toilet paper bandits at public toilets – a number of restrooms across the country are now equipped with facial recognition systems that require scanning before releasing a sheet of toilet paper, after which the person can no longer use the machine for 9 minutes.

Local authorities, however, believe facial recognition helps them fight against people who don’t behave.

“Uncivilized behavior refers to when people behave and act in ways that violate public order because they lack public morals. Many people think that this is a small problem and not a big deal. Others believe public places are truly ‘public,’ where there is no blame, no supervision and no public pressure,” the original post that has already been removed read, as per the cited source.

City officials later apologized, saying the content was not “handled properly.”