Pranks and challenges are nothing new — the ancient Egyptians probably played pranks — but in the age of social media it’s not just about having a laugh at a friend’s expense.
For a while, televised prank shows like Candid Camera were a thing, but those were produced by professionals who understood the legalities of playing tricks on random strangers.
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But now there’s social media and anyone can get their 15 minutes with a phone and an audience.
When people are doing dumb things themselves or with their friends, we may question their choices, but it’s when they take their shenanigans to the street that things can go very wrong.
We’ve seen social media stars get themselves into hot water before, but usually it’s just at the cost of their following.
Maybe they lose some sponsors, but for a lot of them, the controversy can even be a good thing for their subscriber count.
Unfortunately for Kanghua Ren, who goes by ReSet on YouTube, he’s not getting away with a slap on the wrist.
The YouTuber is based in Barcelona, which his family emigrated to from China when he was a child.
The video that got him in trouble was filmed and released in 2017, when Kanghua was 19.
The video started as a challenge from his 1.2 million followers.
In it, he shows himself scraping the filling out of some Oreo cookies and replacing it with toothpaste before repackaging the cookies.
He then went out onto the street and gave them to a homeless man along with a €20 bill.
Because there’s a reason we spit toothpaste out after brushing, the homeless man vomited after eating some.
The victim was only identified as Gheorge L., a Romanian in his mid-50s who worked as a shepherd before migrating to Barcelona.
Reportedly, after the original video received criticism, Kanghua tried to pay Gheorge L.’s daughter another €300 to stay quiet.
He wasn’t going to get away with it, though.
A Spanish court found him guilty of violating the moral integrity of the victim and the sentence is steep.
Fifteen months of prison time, €20,000 ($22,000) to the victim as compensation, and his social media accounts must be shut down for five years.
However, he’s unlikely to serve the prison time.
Spanish law usually allows sentences under two years to be suspended for first-time non-violent offenders.
The social media ban will likely hold, though, because the judge noted that Kanghua’s channel showed multiple times similar pranks had been played on vulnerable people.
Why would he do such a thing in the first place? Money, mostly.
For that one video, Kanghua earned more than €2,000 in advertising revenue. More followers make more money and the crazier the stunts, the more followers he could gain.
Hopefully he’s learned from this experience and other influencers will too.
h/t: The New York Times , LADbible
