A YouTuber has been banned from the platform for five years after he tricked a homeless man into eating Oreo biscuits filled with toothpaste.
Kanghua Ren, 21, the creator of the channel ReSet, was charged with a crime against moral integrity for the video which was originally posted in January 2017.
In the deleted video Ren can be seen filming himself as he removes the white filling and replaces it with toothpaste, before repackaging them and giving them to Gheorge L, a 52-year-old homeless man.
The Barcelona-based YouTuber can then be heard saying:
Maybe I’ve gone a bit far, but look at the positive side: This will help him clean his teeth. I think he hasn’t cleaned them since he became poor.
Gheorge L later told the Spanish newspaper El Paisthat he had ‘never been treated so poorly while living on the street’ adding that eating the toothpaste filled biscuits made him sick.
Ren would visit Gheorge a second time to record a second video claiming, people ‘exaggerate’ when jokes are p[layed on beggars but they don’t care when people prank ‘normal people’.
The YouTuber paid Gheorge a third and final time, this time with a friend, as part of a plan to spend the night with him but a witness saw that they were doing and called the police.
When the judge made his ruling he called ren’s actions ‘a clear and unequivocal act of vexatious content’ adding that the toothpaste the homeless person ate caused ‘physical suffering’.
As part of his punishment, Ren must delete his channel, stay off YouTube for five years and pay 20,000 euros to the victim in compensation.
At the trial, Ren claimed the video was just one of many ‘challenges’ before claiming that the whole incident was an ‘in a joke’.
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More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.