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YouTube star Sam Pepper slammed for ‘killing best friend prank’ video

Rappler.com

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YouTube star Sam Pepper slammed for ‘killing best friend prank’ video
Social media users react to Sam Pepper's prank, where he pretends to kill Viner Colby Brock in front of Colby's best friend, Sam Goldbach

MANILA, Philippines – YouTuber Sam Pepper’s videos have received criticism in the past, and social media users are now blasting his new “Killing Best Friend Prank,” saying he went too far this time. 

For the prank, Sam abducts Viners Sam Goldbach and Colby Brock (who is in on the prank). The two are taken to what appears to be a rooftop, and Sam Pepper appears to shoot and kill Colby, while Sam Goldbach is tied to a chair, watching and understandably, crying uncontrollably. 

Before Sam Pepper shoots Colby, Sam Goldbach can be heard screaming and pleading, “We’re just kids from Kansas… you got the wrong guy! No! He’s everything I have!”

In the introduction, Sam Pepper explains that the two Viners have been best friends for 5 years.

For about a minute of the 5-minute video, Sam Goldbach is seen crying, still tied to the chair. After a while, Colby comes back to life, unties Sam Goldbach and the two hug it out.

So far, the video has more than 260,000 dislikes, and many people on social media have criticized the video. Among them are The Vamps’ James Vey, who said that the video “disgusted” him.



A petition to YouTube has also been started to deactivate Sam Pepper’s account. The creator of the petition, Kaylee-Jade Davis, wrote, “Sam Pepper needs to be stopped. This is not his first offense and it won’t be his last, unless we stop him.”

The petition said that the video broke two of YouTube’s Community Guidelines: violent or graphic content, and harmful or dangerous content.

Among the supporters of the petition are twins and popular YouTubers Finn and Jack Harries.





However, according to article on BBC Newsbeat, YouTube said that the video did not break any of their Community Guidelines and they would not take the video down.

Meanwhile, the a Twitter account that identifies itself as part of the hacktivist group Anonymous has taken action towards getting Sam Pepper to take the video down.

They first announced that Sam Pepper’s video had gotten their attention on December 1. Anonymous gave Sam Pepper a 24-hour window to take the video down.









Soon, Anonymous also tweeted about Sam Pepper’s history of alleged sexual abuse. 

Sam Pepper previously received backlash after he published a prank video where he pinched the bottoms of unsuspecting women. That video was taken down. Sam also denied sexual harassment claims after that video was released, according to BBC Newsbeat. 

He later posted a video of women doing the same thing to men, but that too was taken down. He then explained that the two videos were made to highlight sexual abuse against men.

When Sam Pepper did not take his “Killing Best Friend Prank” video down, Anonymous deactiviated his website and injected a bug into his Twitter account. They then revealed his UK address to the public.








 

After his website was hacked, Anonymous replied to one Sam’s tweets. 


 


 

In an interview on the YouTube channel “Drama Alert,” Sam Pepper, Sam Goldbach, and Colby spoke about the incident. Colby said that because he knew Sam Goldbach very well, he knew that he could take the prank. He further added that he and Sam Goldbach prank each other all the time.

Sam Goldbach, on the other hand, said that he’s “perfectly fine,” and that people were taking the prank “way out of the water.”

The 3 also reacted to YouTuber Carrie Fletcher’s tweet, where she said that the video was “twisted” on its own, but “in light of recent world events, it’s just so wrong.”



A number of social media users, like Carrie, raised concerns that the imagery in the prank video was similar to Islamic State (ISIS) videos, where victims would be kneeling with a mask over their heads before being executed.

On the comparison to ISIS, Sam said, “Definitely I’ve seen a few tweets about that, and we weren’t going for terrorist, ISIS attack imagery. People are just trying to put together whatever they can now, to just roll with the hatred towards this video.”

 

Sam Pepper retweeted Sam Goldbach’s two statements on the matter.

In the first tweet, Sam Goldbach said that the prank made his and Colby’s friendship stronger.



In the second tweet, Sam Goldbach says that he and Colby agree with the message of the video that “life is short” and we should “appreciate every moment.”


 

. – Rappler.com

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