YouTuber ItzArya is being heavily criticized for a video where he throws
water in people's faces. Welcome back to What's Trending, I'm Shira Lazar. Be sure
to LIKE this video and SUBSCRIBE for more social media news daily. AryaMosallah
aka ItzArya posted a video earlier in January called: "Throwing Water On
People's Faces Part 2" and that's basically all it is. Arya confronts
unsuspecting people on the street, tosses water in their face, then runs away when
they chase him. Stupid? Yeah pretty much it is, but why is it causing such an
uproar? It's because there have been an uncomfortable number of acid attacks of
late in the UK where attackers use plastic bottles to spray corrosive
substances in their victims faces. There were actually over 400 acid attacks in
London alone in 2017. That is crazy! And it's become such an issue that some of
the UK's largest retailers have agreed not to sell corrosive liquids to buyers
under 18. To be fair, Arya doesn't mention acid anywhere in his video and it isn't
really clear if he even made the association between the acid attacks and
the prank that he decided to do. The video has since been removed though by
YouTube for violating their policy against harassment and bullying. Though a
video from June, the original "Throwing Water On People's Faces" is still up on
YouTube. I love random YouTube decisions. And, of
course, all of his other videos are still up, which include plenty of harassment in
their own right.
Presumably, Arya could argue that all his pranks are staged and so no harassment
actually happened, but so far he hasn't reacted to the backlash or the video
being removed from YouTube. And the comments, especially those from the UK,
have not been forgiving. @BashSuperior says: "Given the rise in acid attacks of
late, I find this to be extremely disturbing. The 'YouTuber' is aware of the
current climate and has chosen to exploit that for some kicks. @YouTube
should take action against him and definitely shouldn't allow him to profit
off causing distress." @jaimeandrews777 tweets: "Think this guy needs to be sat
down and have a chat with an acid attack victim. See how funny this type of "prank"
is." @misssychelle posts: "This isn't funny but no one said it was an 'acid
attack style prank.' He said he was throwing water on people in his intro...
equally I understand where the participants' fears come from." And the
fact is, even if Arya admits that the pranks are staged, that won't necessarily
help him. A few years ago, UK YouTube star Sam Pepper apologized for a series of
offensive pranks, one where he pinched girls on the butt.
And another where he pretended to shoot someone in
front of their best friend. Pepper's videos don't really get the views they
used to, though he still has 2.3 million subscribers. YouTube pranksters continue
to push the limits of what is okay and not okay. It seems like we've just gone
really far beyond 'Jackass' style pranks that used to be somewhat acceptable here.
Also, let's be clear. If you're attaching a scorpion to your scrotum,
that's only what's happening to you, not like putting that on others, except I
guess the visuals of that. I also think we're in a different time on YouTube and
social media. People don't have the tolerance they once had for stunts like
this. They think they're stupid, especially if there's stunts that will
take advantage of people who aren't in on the prank, or just take advantage of
something happening in society to create something that has a clickbait to it. I
think there's just an overall sentiment around YouTubers right now that they
live in their own bubble, they're a bit ignorant to what's happening in the
world, and you can see that in the videos that they're posting. This is an example
of that, and I really think that's why he's getting so much backlash, besides
the fact that it's just stupid. And while Aria might have not had the
intent to do something wrong, he does need to step it up and take
responsibility for what he posted. Tons of views and subscribers come tons of
responsibility, as we've seen time and time again. Surprise, surprise! And can we
move on and just do pranks and stunts that like help people? make people feel
good about themselves? Instead of horrible? So what do you think? Was Aria
in the wrong for doing a prank like this? Let us know in the COMMENTS below, and be
sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE for more of What's Trending.