A Canadian YouTuber is facing a growing online backlash after buying a yellow vest on Amazon, then posing as a journalist at a recent Hong Kong protest in search of “adventure” and “exposure.”
As any working journalist covering the now four-month-old protests will tell you, the yellow, high-visibility vests are no guarantee against being targeted for violence. Reporters and photographers covering the protests have been punched, pepper-sprayed in the face, and shot with tear gas canisters in the past few weeks alone. The vests do, however, have a legitimate function.
In an open letter last month to Police Commissioner Stephen Lo Wai-chung addressing the “deterioration in relations between the police and media,” the Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents Club underscored why the vests are important as an identifier.
“Officers should assume that those at a protest who are wearing jackets and helmets clearly marked “Press,” “記者” etc. are actually journalists and not imposters. The Hong Kong government does not issue an official press card. As such, journalists can only produce cards issued by their employer or affiliated organisation.”
We’re guessing software engineer and “digital nomad” Toby Gu – who has more than 17,000 followers on Instagram— didn’t get the memo.
“I flew in yesterday with some photoshopped badge, and a vest that I brought from Amazon, and now I’m way behind police lines, and I’m just a tourist, what the fuck?” he gleefully asks about midway through the video.
What the fuck, indeed. In the roughly 15-minute video, which centers on a Sept. 22 protest at Sha Tin’s New Town Plaza, the first-time Hong Kong visitor presents a context-free compendium of burning barricades and police-protester scuffles, peppered with powerful insights like “Some really intense shit just happened.”
The video now online isn’t even his first effort, which was swapped out for a “minimally edited” version in which he tried to “change the tone” when it became apparent the “having a blast” vibe wasn’t playing that well.
“I did film this video with a very happy tone at the beginning saying ‘hey let’s go on an adventure, let’s see how much fun this is, maybe Hong Kong is a joke,” he explained to his critics, before gravely adding “It really isn’t.”
He only wanted to share the pain that residents of Hong Kong are facing, he explained, before conceding he was also “trying to get more views,” to “get this video to explode” and “to get more exposure.”
YouTubers gonna YouTube.
Concerns about “fake reporters” have been a recurring theme during unrest of the past months. At a police press briefing on Sept. 3, police showed a presentation of an evidence haul from the recent protests, which they said included “fake media passes” for reporters working for “rubbish media.”
Reached yesterday evening, Hong Kong Journalist’s Association Chairman Chris Yeung explained that while you need to register to cover a private or government event, you don’t need to be accredited to cover a public event like a protest.
“There have been no government suggestions that reporters have to register to cover those public activities, rallies etc. Practically, it is unclear how that can be done,” he said.
“I don’t think the Police have suggested publicly there should be a registration system. We do not know whether it is something they are considering behind the scene. They have claimed there are ‘fake reporters,’ ‘fake press cards’. But they have not so far given details of any concrete cases.”
For its part, the HKJA has so far identified just one case of a “fake press card” involving a reporter who purportedly worked for a state-funded newspaper.
“The reporter was found to have also held a press card issued by a Macau media outlet, but the outlet denied they have issued such a card. In fact, they have not issued any press cards for their journalists,” Yeung explained, adding that they had reported the case to the police.
Gu’s actions, meanwhile, clearly constituted something that could “cause confusion and misunderstanding among the public, in particular the protesters, about the authenticity of reporters.”
“We always hold the view that people who are not doing reporting should try not to be mistaken as journalists in the dress and in their acts at the protest areas,” Yeung said. “The confusion and misunderstanding that may arise will hinder the work of front-line journalists.”
That take was echoed by netizens, who — with the possible exception of noted douchebag and pickup artist David Bond (below) — seemed deeply unimpressed with Gu’s protest shenanigans.
“By imitating the press, you are damaging the credentials of all the fearless and hardworking journalists in HK,” one said. “Police have been using all kinds of excuses to suppress press freedom and saying that journalists in the scene are just fakes. Now what you have done is substantiating their claim. Shame on you!”
Another wrote: “You have put other people’s life in danger for your ‘fun.’ And you don’t feel any remorse after knowing the truth… [W]hat you have done has put those really fighting under the danger of police brutality.”
“We don’t need self-absorbed, good-for-nothing YouTubers at our sites of protests,” said another. “If you want to come as a tourist, no problem, go and see the Big Buddha, see the night views from the Peak, stay the hell away from our sites of protests.”
Clearly fed up with the “haters,” Gu took to Instagram on Tuesday to decry the “mob mentality” and let people know he was done “trying to explain and apologize.”
He said he plans to fly back for the planned National Day protest on Oct. 1.
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