I wanted to report this earlier, but some health issues at home got in the way of a timelier post. Last week, I wrote about billionaire Alki David’s plans to live-stream the assisted suicide/euthanasia of a Russian cancer patient.
Well, there was a broadcast. But it was an elaborate hoax.
The story is at TechExclusive.net:
The live assisted suicide that was portrayed to be broadcasted live on BattleCam.com, and made international media, turned out to be a fake promotion stunt. Owner of BattleCam.com promised to the media that he was showing a live assisted suicide on his website. Was it real? NO. Did many believe it was? Yes.
The site received more than 150k people who were all watching to see the ‘live assisted suicide’.
The video cut in, and people believed it was real. 30 seconds in to the video people were thinking, this isn’t real!? 30 seconds later, people knew it was nothing more than a publiscity stunt.
Alki then had a short talk. He claims the man who was supposed to be the brain cancer patient was simply his Boat captain, the supposed wife of the patient was his house keeper, and the doctors were real. The location and setting of the prank we pre-recorded in Greece.
So, it appears that this really was just a publicity stunt. I’m not sure, in terms of average traffic to the site, if 150,000 is an impressive result or not.
Let’s hope it’s less than Mr. David was hoping for. He could always give it a try again – and for real this time. Would it go over well with the BattleCam audience?
I only watched a “video tour” of the site. That short video featured a young guy setting his hair on fire, apparently winning a 500 dollar “prize” for doing so. Another man announced he was really drunk and then drove a staple through a body part that should really be treated a lot more gently.
I leave it to others to figure out how well a “live” suicide would go over with an audience to a site like that.
Stephen, not sure if you’ve seen it, but there is a recently posted Battlecam video called “The Suicide Hoax” that includes the actual footage, which does come across as described in the article; 1st shock & disbelief, then, wait, something’s not right here, then obviously fake, all within a minute or 2. I am glad that it turned out to be hoax, but it is disheartening that when it was believed to be real, that there was no outrage about it from other progressives, who would scream, & have press releases & protests, if it was purported to be a state-sponsored execution being broadcast.
Heather,
I haven’t seen the video. I’ll do a search later to see if I can find it on the site. It’s not my kind of place (yours, either, I’d guess).