For today’s video: Not funny

Pranks and scripted stunts by vloggers and content creators have spiraled out of control, disrupting public order and causing actual harm and trauma to people — all for the sake of content.

Earlier this month, police arrested three vloggers behind the “Tukomi” channel on YouTube and Meta over a kidnapping prank they staged and uploaded in April. They were charged before a Las Piñas court with alarm and scandal after a police officer, who witnessed the second kidnapping prank, filed a complaint.

Police Staff Sgt. Ronnie Conmigo thought the incident was real that he drew his gun against the “kidnappers.” Fortunately, no actual shooting happened, but Conmigo still filed the complaint “so that they will not repeat their stunts … and prevent copycats of their very dangerous acts.” What if, Conmigo asked, it had been a trigger-happy policeman who was at the scene?

The Anti-Crime Group has noted an increase in incident reports about vloggers staging dangerous pranks, such as fake robberies or attacks, which have “caused fear and panic in public places, disrupted public services, and endangered the safety of others … The prank can be entertaining and amusing, [but] some creators are taking it too far and creating dangerous, harmful, or illegal content.”

The Philippine National Police has issued a warning that pranks causing panic will not be taken lightly. Article 153 of the Revised Penal Code slaps a six-year prison term on those who disturb public order, while Republic Act No. 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act imposes 12 years of jail time for those who upload a prank video on social media platforms.

Prank videos are created around the concept of virality for profit — the more views, the more revenue for these content creators. That fake kidnapping video has combined views of two million on YouTube and Meta (the Zuckerberg-owned company appears to have taken it down).

The creators have described their channel, which has 4.2 million subscribers on YouTube and 4.2 million followers on Meta, as showcasing “pranks, skits, parody, challenges,” and stream content that “only the shameless can do” (“Walang hiya lang nakakagawa”).

They are certainly not the only ones who produce this kind of content. So when do we draw the line between acceptable humor and a distasteful or risky prank that could cause trauma, compromise public safety, or lead to legal cases?

Prank videos used to be novel, especially at the height of the pandemic when people turned to entertainment to deal with their anxieties, but the fun has long ceased with dangerous and harmful stunts that abuse the use of these social media platforms. While there are mechanisms to report offensive or problematic posts, taking them down has not prevented users from continuously using their platform to produce similar harmful content.

There is a competition among these content creators to go viral to get more views so they constantly challenge not only social norms but the public’s security and safety. Interestingly, the Tukomi vloggers created content from the news about their arrest over the kidnapping prank; the video has now received over 62,000 views on YouTube, generating more revenue for their channel.

No doubt that the creator economy is booming — the Bureau of Internal Revenue should look again into the tax compliance of these content creators. More importantly, government regulators must ensure that their content does not cause any unnecessary inconvenience or alarm to the general public.

Locally, these crime pranks have ranged from the absurd to extreme cases: repeatedly asking a Japanese restaurant for refills of spice and putting them in jars to take home, a coronavirus prank in Legazpi City, a mock arrest in Angeles City, and a fake road rage involving a car chase and a shootout in Marikina. The Filipino vlogger who pretended to fall unconscious amid the coronavirus scare in 2020 was arrested. The two policemen involved in the fake arrest in Angeles City were relieved. The road rage pranksters were charged.

Some pranks in other countries have ended in deaths and the content creators charged with manslaughter. Must we wait for the same thing to happen here?

What is worrying is that there will come a time when no one would believe when actual crimes like a kidnapping or robbery are happening, thinking that they could be a prank. In addition, state resources are wasted in responding to “emergencies” that turn out to be staged, like what happened in Davao last January when a pair of vloggers pretended to have accidentally drunk gasoline at a gas station. A disaster team was summoned to provide aid only to be told later that the incident was a prank.

These cases of local vloggers arrested and charged should serve as a warning to other content creators. They should be dealt with according to the law and no amount of disclaimer should free them from any accountability. Pranks taken to the extreme and cause alarm and public disturbance, or cost government resources, are simply not funny.