[quote]By Zainie Qureshi
Opinions Writer
Photo courtesy of YouTube[/quote]

There’s already been a fair amount of controversy surrounding YouTuber, Sam Pepper, regarding multiple sexual harassment allegations and broadcasting inappropriate content. So, needless to say, people weren’t too surprised when his name popped up on trending lists for all but positive reasons. Stepping away from sexually violating young women on the street, he took to a new approach to aggravating the internet community by posting the video, “Killing Best Friend | Ft. Sam & Colby” on Nov. 29.

In the video, Viners Sam Golbach and Colby Brock appear to be driving down an empty alley when they experience some car trouble. Colby, who is in on the prank, steps out to go check what’s gone wrong, with Sam following soon after. That’s when somebody approaches Golbach and bags his head from behind whilst shoving him into the trunk. He’s brought up to a rooftop where he’s lead to believe that he’s witnessed the murder of his best friend.

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During the end of the video, which was filmed a couple days after the incident, they’re all laughing and they explain how everyone and everything’s okay, but should they be? After seeing how most people reacted, Golbach, the one being pranked, played it off and made an announcement on Twitter about how he was ok with it, acting as if it was no big deal, when it is. They stuffed him into the trunk of a car and then made it out as if he was about to get shot, it wasn’t like they locked his phone for three hours or set his alarm to go off at two a.m., they used the exploitation of his fears to gain views and followers. This type of action carries over in our lives today, in the sense that we’ll do absolutely anything to get retweets or likes. There’s a huge a fight at school for instance, you can find anything and everything including pictures, who was it between and why it happened if you just dig through people’s social media accounts. Those tweets and snapchat stories circulate throughout the population of the school like wildfire. Everybody wants to be the one who got the best picture or the best video, and people will do anything to achieve that.

Sam Pepper has a fairly large following, by posting this video he’s encouraging them all that it’s ok to treat people as if their friendship is a joke, and by Golbach acting as though it was ok that his friends did that to him, he’s promoting unhealthy friendships. Your friends are supposed to encourage you and support you, not play with your emotions just to get a laugh. No one should have the mindset that them being traumatized is allowed to be used for other people’s amusement.

After the video was posted there was an immediate amount of backlash from viewers, people were absolutely horrified. There’s been a petition floating around social media gaining over 10,000 signatures in efforts to get his channel removed from Youtube, but so far no action has been taken due to the fact that technically speaking, the video didn’t infringe upon any of Youtube’s Terms and Policies. There are tons of Youtubers who are known for their pranks without overstepping boundaries, Sam Pepper wasn’t out to bring people happiness he was just looking for some publicity and attention.