At least 81 pages and groups on Facebook (FB) have widely spread an old YouTube video filled with wrong information on the alleged “miraculous escape” of a teenager “kidnapped presumably for organ harvesting.”
The footage that had gone viral is almost 10 months old. The girl in the video, as a television channel reported last February, ran away from home and was not abducted.
From Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, the FB groups and pages shared the video published on Feb. 8 by a personal YouTube channel that is “all about beauty, Mom’s life, daily vlogs and many more trips.” The posts, tracked by social media monitoring tool Crowdtangle, could have reached about 8.3 million netizens in three days.
The footage, which now has 1.8 million views, featured the then viral photos of a teenager with scratches all over her body, and an X mark on the upper right side of her abdomen. She was supposedly abducted in Trece Martires, Cavite after school.
Text and ominous music were added to the clip which was titled:
“DALAGITA HIMALANG NAKALIGTAS | VAN KIDNAP NA KUMUKUHA NG LAMAN LOOB (Teenager miraculously rescued | Van kidnap [sic] harvesting organs)?”
A report by News5 published on Feb. 7, or a day before the false video was posted, clarified that the 17-year old girl actually ran away from home and was not abducted.
The interview with the police officer assigned to the case said the teenager admitted to fabricating the elaborate story of her kidnapping. The police said the wounds were self-inflicted and that the girl was angry at her parents for not providing her “luho” or the luxuries her peers were enjoying.
The false video was shared a few days after the news of nine youth, aged 15 to 23, went missing in Pasay City between Nov. 20 to Nov. 22.
Photo from Manila Bulletin
Pasay City police has formed a task force to probe the mysterious disappearances.
The top traffic generators for the false YouTube video are Basta’t Kasama Kita page, ANGKAS Riders and Passengers GROUP and KMJS page.