Elizabeth Eats NYC defends recording servers with Meta glasses
She’s in a real pickle.
A popular foodie TikTokker eating her way through the Big Apple has ignited a firestorm over her use of discreet Meta recording eyeglasses, which videotape her waiters as she does her shtick.
Critics are calling the glasses “hypocritical” and “creepy” — considering the online star goes to great lengths to keep her own identity a secret.
But the 22-year-old mastermind behind Elizabeth Eats NYC is delivering a message through The Post to her haters: “Get off your high horse, and enjoy the show.”
“Holding a camera isn’t practical for me. … I move around lots, engage with people in real time, and the glasses let me film without a big intrusive camera,” said the college grad, who spoke on condition her identity be kept under wraps.
“They help me keep interactions genuine and spontaneous while still creating high-quality content,” Elizabeth explained of her special specs.
The Meta glasses, which retail for $380, have been a part of Elizabeth’s approach since she first started her foodie account in June for another reason, too.
She said she has a hand tremor, which would make holding a camera near-impossible.
Elizabeth started her account with a photo of herself as her profile picture and only swapped it out for a cartoon version when she rapidly gained millions of followers just weeks into her new content career — a future she did not foresee.
She said that after witnessing other foodie influencers such as Keith Lee get mobbed by fans, she made a conscious decision to then try to keep her identity a secret, a decision she’s glad to have stuck by as her account gained popularity and she began receiving death threats over a joke she made in poor taste about the Israel-Gaza conflict.
“I’m like a normal person. I don’t want to be this huge famous person that can’t leave their apartment without these cameras in my face. I just basically want to lead a normal life and have peace and privacy,” she explained.
Social-media users were quick to call her out for what they see as the hypocrisy, with most of the outrage centering on her use of the discreet recording glasses.
Thousands of viewers have fumed on social media for weeks, with one saying, “She ambushes people and records them without them realizing. Exploits them.”
The foodie influencer fired back that the difference is that the people she films don’t have “millions of followers.
“A 10-second clip of someone who isn’t known on the Internet is way different than a 10-second clip of me where there’s so much connotation of things that can happen,” Elizabeth said, adding that she has since changed her approach to ask permission from individuals before she records them.
“I think I’m being held to a standard that no other content creator has been held to before,” she said.
“I think it’s interesting my videos are singled out for controversy, even though filming people in public has been standard practice since cameras were invented.
“My glasses have a blinking light to indicate recording. I 1758104255 make sure anyone who’s a main focus in a video is aware they’re being recorded. I respect requests, and I’ve never posted someone who’s asked not to be on camera.”
Elizabeth emphasized that she is only acting with “good intentions” while, as her TikTok bio says, trying to “ungatekeep” the best foodie spots throughout the Big Apple — which often means highlighting mom-and-pop joints as well as affordable eateries.
But even some of her most positively reviewed restaurants aren’t exactly giving her Meta glasses four stars.
The Chubby Crab in Chinatown was inundated with orders in the days after Elizabeth posted a viral video about its seafood boils that garnered over 100,000 views — to the point where it ran out of crab.
Still, owner Tom Wong said he “wouldn’t have agreed” to it beforehand if he had known Elizabeth was filming him when she ordered her dish.
“I’m a really shy person. I haven’t posted on social media in over a year,” Wong said.
Then again, “The [glasses] are part of her success and charm. … I’m very happy now with her. I only have good things to say about her.”
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
