InfoWars Receives YouTube Termination Warning Over “Crisis Actor” Video

The InfoWars YouTube channel received a “first strike” warning over a video suggesting that the survivors of the Parkland school shooting were coached and given lines for interviews with various media outlets following the Valentines Day massacre which left 17 dead.

The video, uploaded to the InfoWars channel with over 2.2 million subscribers, was removed for a violation of YouTube’s “harassment and bullying” policy. It revolved around this clip of Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, who appeared to be having trouble conveying his account of the shooting:

David Hogg can’t remember his lines here.
This needs to be investigated
His dad worked for the FBI
pic.twitter.com/JEhDc2puoQ

— Piper Fogle (@ElectPiperFogle) February 21, 2018

YouTube has all but scrubbed this clip of Hogg from its platform.

A second clip of Hogg which fueled speculation that he was a crisis actor features an exchange between Hogg and a Redondo Beach, CA lifeguard from 2017, in which the High School student places his boogie board on a trash can before getting in an altercation with the lifeguard.  

After the lifeguard scuffle briefly became YouTube’s No. 1 trending video, YouTube removed it under their harassment and bullying policy and apologized for helping to fuel the “crisis actor” theory. A copy of the video above is still live as of this writing. 

“Last summer we updated the application of our harassment policy to include hoax videos that target the victims of these tragedies,” said a YouTube spokesperson. “Any video flagged to us that violates this policy is reviewed and then removed.“

YouTube’s community guidelines say that if an account receives two strikes in a three-month period, it will not be able to upload content for two weeks. If three strikes are given within three months, the account will be terminated. 

Hogg answers critics

Hogg, an aspiring actor, photographer, and drama student who has been backstage at CNN (and possibly on Air Force One?) hit back in a series of interviews, claiming “I am not a Clinton ploy or an actor,” adding “I am a witness to this.”

Hogg also went on CNN to refute the claims, flanked by Anderson Cooper and his father – a former FBI agent, to shoot down claims that he is a paid actor. 

“I’m not a crisis actor,” Hogg told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “AC360” Tuesday. “I’m someone who had to witness this and live through this and I continue to be having to do that.”

“I’m not acting on anybody’s behalf,” the 17-year-old added. –CNN

Further fueling speculation over a coverup has been the removal and strike issued over another video of Parkland shooting survivor, Senior Alexa Miednik, who said she spoke with suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz during the shooting. 

Miednik believed that a second shooter was involved in the attack, stating “There was obviously, definitely another shooter involved.” When KHOU11 reporter Matt Musil then asks Miednik “Oh, you think he was not the only one?”, Miednik replies “Definitely not.” 

While this video is being scrubbed from YouTube’s platform, it can still be viewed on Twitter where it was originally uploaded.

#KHOU11 After shifting over from #ASTROS Camp to coverage of school shooting in Parkland, Forida, I talked with Alexa Miednik , a Senior at Douglas HS. She never saw a gun but she says she knows the alleged shooter… pic.twitter.com/qzaOUbFMPu

— Matt Musil (@KHOUSportsMatt) February 15, 2018

While Occam’s razor suggests Hogg is nothing more than an enthusiastic young man in transitory pursuit of the media limelight, hopefully with a genuine message and conducting student interviews after a gunman was on a rampage at his High School – the seemingly overnight “pop-up” campaign against the Second Amendment revolving around Hogg, the video of Hogg flubbing his “lines,” and an eyewitness who says she saw a second shooter have given fuel to the ongoing theories surrounding the massacre.