Number 8 Mika Salamanca In July of 2020,
a vlogger from the Philippines was taken into custody by authorities in Honolulu, Hawaii,
for failing to comply with quarantine regulations. Just four days after she’d arrived on the island,
20-year-old Mika Salamanca filmed herself dancing in a store and dining at a restaurant.
At the time, a 14-day mandatory quarantine for travelers was in effect as officials struggled to
contain the spread of COVID-19. Salamanca, who had millions of followers on YouTube and Instagram,
filmed the videos in a Sephora at Ala Moana Centre and at a Korean restaurant on Ke'eaumoku Street.
The footage of her out in public was shared by a tourism authority with attorney general special
agents, thus leading to the young vlogger’s arrest. She posted a $2,000 bail and subsequently
apologized for her actions on social media. Salamanca also told her followers that local
police had come to her accommodations and told her that she could go out if she provided them with a
negative COVID-19 test. Hawaii Attorney General Clare Connors, however, disputed her claims.
Number 7 Gaurav Sharma Indian YouTuber Gaurav Sharma was arrested, in May
of 2021, and charged with animal cruelty following a stunt in which he’d tied helium balloons
to his dog, resulting in the animal taking flight. The video was filmed in Delhi and the vlogger,
who had over 4 million subscribers, attached the balloons to Dollar, his pet Pomeranian mix.
31-year-old Sharma laughed as his small dog was airlifted to a balcony in a residential area.
Another person then grabbed Dollar and pulled him to safety. The footage sparked outrage online and
People for Animals, one of India's largest welfare organizations, raised the alarm with
local authorities. Sharma was then arrested under a section of the Animal Cruelty Act,
as it was deemed he’d endangered the dog’s life in the stunt. The vlogger apologized but also claimed
he’d taken the necessary safety precautions towards ensuring Dollar wouldn’t be hurt.
Number 6 Cesar L. Galaviz
A warrant was put out for the arrest of a Texas vlogger, in March of 2021, after he’d
recorded himself at a SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica, in the southern part of the state.
SpaceX, a corporation founded in 2002 by business magnate Elon Musk,
launched its Starship SN11 rocket on March the 30th. The rocket exploded above the landing pad,
during its return trip, due to what Musk reported to have been a methane leak. Cesar L. Galaviz,
who ran a YouTube channel called Loco Vlogs, had managed to get remarkably close to the ill-fated
spacecraft earlier in the month. He began his vlog by excitedly addressing his followers to say
"Guys, I'm telling you this is going to be epic. This is not what you've seen on other people's
channels". It’s unclear how Galaviz had managed to access the property but, after filming himself in
the rocket’s shadow, he walked onto the launching pad and got close enough to capture its thrusters.
As the video began circulating online, Cameron County Sheriff Eric Garza tweeted that there was
a warrant out for Galaviz’s arrest on charges of criminal trespassing. Galaviz subsequently removed
the SpaceX video from his channel and uploaded another in which he apologized for his actions.
According to updates on the case, SpaceX had dropped the charges against him.
Number 5 Nate Narra A YouTuber, who boasted over 270,000
subscribers on his channel, was detained in March of 2020, after attempting to flee a traffic stop
conducted by the Cumby Police Department, in Texas. Nate Narra, of Sterling Heights,
Michigan, was observed by the authorities driving at 91 mph in a zone where traffic was restricted
to 75 mph. He then sped up upon being signaled by law enforcement and headed north on Highway 50,
towards Commerce. Narra approached the city limits but then turned south and crashed into another
vehicle. His car started smoking from a rear tire and throwing fragments of rubber. Narra was forced
to bring it to halt, in case he risked causing further damage, and was taken into custody.
He was charged with reckless driving as well as evading arrest with a motor vehicle and his bond
was set at $17,500. Even though he’d endangered the lives of others on a public street, Narra
seemed to have no regrets over his behavior. After he was released, the vlogger posted a photo on his
social media, taken outside the Hopkins County Jail, in which he was showing the middle finger.
The post, presumably aimed at the authorities who’d detained him, received mixed reactions.
Number 4 Govert Sweep and Ties Granzier In June of 2019, Bakersfield resident
Matty Roberts created a Facebook event encouraging others to “Storm Area 51”, a post which he would
later claim had originated out of a purely comedic intention. Area 51 is the common name attributed
to a highly classified facility, located within the Nevada Test and Training Range and operated
by the United States Air Force. For years it has been the subject of conspiracy theories
regarding contact with extraterrestrial life and experiments with alien technology conducted
by the US. The mock event, an often repeated motto of which was “they can’t stop all of us”,
became an Internet meme and over 2 million users responded that they’d be going to it,
with the objective of forcing their way into the facility in search for proof of extraterrestrials.
In July a spokesperson for the Air Force discouraged the would-be trespassers
claiming that the armed forces branch “always stands ready to protect America
and its assets”. Many had recognized the dangers of approaching the base and
organizers cancelled the event, reportedly after the FBI had gotten involved. On the day,
September the 20th of 2019, only about 150 people showed up at two Area 51 entrances and none of
them gained access to the facility. Prior to the main gathering, on September the 10th, a pair of
Dutch YouTubers were arrested for entering the Nevada National Security Site, near Mercury,
located more than 20 miles from Area 51. Govert Sweep and Ties Granzier, both in their early 20s,
were inspired by the Facebook event. They were caught by patrols who found a camera and an aerial
drone in their rented car. Sweep and Granzier admitted that they’d ignored signs warning them
that they were in an area that was off-limits to the general public. The pair mentioned that they
had no intention of storming the base and merely wanted to see it from the outside. They pleaded
guilty to misdemeanor trespassing and illegal parking for which a judge ordered them to spend
three days in the Nye County jail and pay a fine of $2,280 each. They were allowed to return to the
Netherlands following their release. Number 3 Sophie Rose
In 2017, on the Thai island of Phuket, a popular British influencer was killed in an accident
involving a moped and an 18-wheel truck. Vlogger Sophie Rose, originally from Blackpool, was living
in Phuket with her 29-year-old boyfriend Danny Glass, also a British national, who ran a channel
where he uploaded videos on health and wellness. Rose, aged 41, had received millions of views on
her own YouTube channel, with some of her content advocating breastfeeding for older children.
In many of her videos, Rose could be seen breastfeeding her 5-year-old son from a previous
relationship. At the time of the accident, which occurred on May the 8th, Rose was reportedly
six-months pregnant with Glass’ child. The couple were on a moped, with Rose riding pillion.
Glass swerved to avoid a parked car at which point the moped collided with an 18-wheel truck,
driven by 30-year-old Thai national Natthawut Kimsue. Rose sustained devastating head injuries
and passed away while Glass emerged from the accident largely unscathed. He and Kimsue were
both arrested on charges of reckless driving causing death. Glass pleaded guilty and was
given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, as well as a fine of nearly $450.
Today's topic was requested by Daniel Miller. If you have any other topics
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Number 2 Jolie King and Mark Firkin In 2019, a couple of travelling vloggers
narrowly avoided serving a lengthy sentence in one of the worst prisons on Earth. British-Australian
woman Jolie King and her Australian boyfriend, Mark Firkin, had left their Perth home in 2017.
They’d travelled across Asia in a Toyota Land Cruiser, through countries that included India,
Pakistan and Nepal, documenting their experience in a YouTube vlog called “The Way Overland”.
Through their videos the couple reported that they hoped to inspire others to travel but also dispel
some preconceived notions about parts of the world that often got a “bad rap” in the media.
King and Firkin’s adventures eventually led them to Iran, in the summer of 2019.
On June the 30th, they uploaded a video of their first day in the Middle Eastern country. Their
friends then raised the alarm when they no longer received any updates from them. It would later
emerge that they’d been imprisoned. While trying to gather photos and videos for the travel vlog,
the couple had flown a drone near military installations in Jajrood, Tehran province. They
were arrested at gunpoint, blindfolded and taken to Evin prison on charges that had begun with
espionage but were eventually downgraded to flying a drone without a permit. Evin prison, located
in the eponymous neighborhood in the country’s capital, is a facility that has been accused of
serious human rights abuses and which one inmate described as a "black hole of evil".
King and Firkin were ultimately released, in early October, following several months of
negotiations between officials in Iran and the Australian government. While officially denied,
there were reports of a prisoner exchange with 38-year-old Reza Dehbashi Kivi, an Iranian former
PhD student at the University of Queensland. Kivi was accused of conspiring to export restricted
US defense articles to Iran, which could be used to detect stealth planes or missiles.
He’d been arrested in Australia, in 2018, and awaited extradition to the US but the state
media in Iran reported that he’d returned home. King and Firkin asked the media for privacy in the
aftermath of their release but stated an intention of eventually resuming their travel vlog.
Number 1 Logan Paul In December of 2017, YouTuber Logan Paul,
a popular creator with millions of subscribers, and a group of his friends went to Japan
planning, among others, to camp in the Aokigahara forest, at the base of Mount Fuji. The forest is
infamous for being a place where people choose to end their lives. Paul, then in his early 20s,
and his companions entered the forest and found the corpse of a man who’d hanged himself.
They cancelled their camping plans and alerted the authorities but then, on December the 31st,
Paul uploaded a vlog to his channel depicting the deceased man’s body. Paul faced major
backlash over the vlog itself and for how he and his group had reacted during the incident.
Many Internet users felt he was exploiting or making light of a tragic situation.
The vlogger’s overall behavior in Japan, a country that emphasizes propriety in social interactions,
was also considered distasteful. He’d removed his clothes in a crowded street,
jumped on a moving forklift at a fish market and threw a giant Poké Ball at citizens,
including a Tokyo police officer. In the aftermath of the Aokigahara vlog,
many of the projects that Paul had in development were cancelled and there was a petition with
over half a million signatures for him to delete his channel. Paul removed the video from his
channel and issued an apology over Twitter, which was largely perceived as disingenuous. He issued
further apologies and donated $1 million to prevention agencies that helped people
who struggled with thoughts of self-harming. Following a brief hiatus, Paul returned to
his daily vlogs on February the 4th of 2018. Thanks for watching! For a year, would you
rather be secretly filmed at random moments and have the footage uploaded to your social media OR
lose $100 whenever you said a curse word? Let us know in the comments section below!