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news
London van man and cyclist (via Facebook).jpgFemale cyclist's van man revenge video may be fake, admits company that posted it
A video showing a female cyclist in London pulling a wing mirror off a van after one of the vehicle's occupants made sexist comments at her may be fake, the company that uploaded it to Facebook yesterday has admitted.
The video, which received more than 10 million views on the Viral Thread Facebook page but has since been removed, was widely reported today on both mainstream and specialist news outlets today, including road.cc.
> Video of cyclist's revenge on sexist London van man goes viral
As the story went viral, however, the focus quickly switched to claims that the incident depicted in the footage had been staged.
The Mirror reported social media user Kareem Naaman as saying: "This is fake and was filmed by actors. Mate of mine saw it all being filmed. Not sure who or why, but interested to find out what it was for."
Scott Deane, a builder, told the Sun that he had seen the video, shot in an around London's Tottenham Court Road, being made.
He said: "I was across the road having a break and I saw this very attractive girl with a bike talking to a blonde guy who was giving her instructions.
“Then three guys dressed in orange site clothes turned up in a van and the blonde bloke was giving them instructions, too.
“He was telling the girl: ‘You need to ride behind the van aggressively'."
The Viral Thread Facebook page is owned by an east London-based company called Jungle Creations.
The business produces its own viral content, as well as hosting and licencing material on behalf of third parties. Besides earning advertising revenue through its own social media channels such as Facebook, it also charges media outlets who wish to use its content themselves.
When approached by the Guardian earlier today, it quoted the newspaper £400 if it wanted to host the video in its own media player, and £150 on its social media channels.
Jungle Creations insists it did not make the video itself, with a spokesman saying in response to claims that the footage was staged: "The syndication arm ofJungle Creations asked the content creator for verification that this incident was true and they received this confirmation."
But this afternoon, the company admitted in a statement that correct vetting procedures had not been followed and as good as confirmed that the footage was, in all likelihood, flase.
It said: "It has come to our attention that a video distributed on our Facebook channel Viral Thread on February 21, 2017 may be factually incorrect.
"Contrary to reports, we want to make clear that we were in no way involved in the making or production of this video.
"The video was received from a third-party content provider and it was distributed on Viral Thread under the impression that it portrayed real-life events.
"We rigorously vet all content received from third parties to ascertain its credibility, but unfortunately our usual high standards were not met on this video.
"We are committed to ensuring and protecting the integrity of content on our channels and take matters of this nature extremely seriously. We’ve since started an internal investigation to make sure it doesn’t happen again."
Viral Thread was founded in 2014 by university graduate Jamie Bolding when he moved back to his mother's house in Surrey after graduating from university.
According to BBC News, his Jungle Creations business, which owns several social media channels, made him £2.5 million last year through viral hits such as the Camembert Hedgehog Bread video, which has been watched more than 22 million times and shared by almost 300,000 people on another of his Facebook pages, Twisted Food Social.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- Rendel Harris 3 sec ago
As what you have said is demonstrably untrue, given that the event is organised and has been for the last four years by a professional events...
- chrisonabike 28 min 26 sec ago
Accessibility issue. Of course by necessity / co- evolution the Dutch generally provide a fairly "one size fits standard bikes" parking solution -...
- Kapelmuur 39 min 12 sec ago
Thanks for the heads up. I wore it the first time the temperature fell below 10C, with a merino base layer. A short ride of about 90 minutes, I...
- Steve K 1 hour 43 min ago
I'm there now too, if anyone wants a follow/wants to follow me. @cyclingtheseaso
- Shepton 2 hours 19 min ago
I totally agree. I used to commute through Long Ashton and only started getting agro from motorists when the pavement was made to be a shared path....
- Rendel Harris 2 hours 42 min ago
She was still there in Greenwich when I cycled past her on Wednesday!
- Rendel Harris 2 hours 53 min ago
It's obviously a very personal thing but if I was in the market at your budget I would take a serious look at the Ribble AllRoad SL Pro, currently...
- Hirsute 4 hours 44 min ago
No driver involved https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/24728452.car-crash-station-way-colch...
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37 comments
If it seems too good to be true it usually is.
What's disgusting is that people make money from creating false content and then selling it to broadcast media. There's a ready market for this shit because hate rags lap it up. It should be against the law to stage an event like this and then pass it off as real when it isn't. It should be a fineable offence with the fine exceeding the potential gains.
Yes it is ironic. I don't doubt this sort of thing happens but the point is his video is fake and is raising awareness for nothing but the marketing company.
However it seems that disagreeing with people leads to being called sexist, alt-right etc which I personally find frustrating because it's done under a pretence of being progressive and upstanding but to me is an underhand way of denigrating people's points. "Quick, no-one agree with this person - they're probably sexist!". There's almost zero effort to present a valid counter opinion
Quite severe "negging" ensues too. "Sharing feelings" in that wry, snide manner is a very unsubtle way of stating other people's views aren't based on facts. It's also quite handy if you want to stop two or more people agreeing with each other about how you've conducted yourself.
He still doesn't get the Piers Morgan reference.
Aww you two.. sharing your feelings and all.
How about you two grow a pair and stop talking absolute tripe then maybe you won't feel 'bullied' when someone calls you out on it.
And Anthony, get an education, in no way does a person you dislike using a technique make that technique invalidate a point.
"Oh but Piers does it!" Who gives a toss. Grow a pair. Sexism happens and you're in here trying to shit on people who showed a bit of solidarity. You must have loved it when it turned out to be fake. Patch your little bullied victim self-esteem did it?
My tone too strong for you? Feel even more bullied now do you? Maybe that wreck turboprune above you, who's clearly still smarting from being called out the other day too, can give you a hug.
I think it was me that called you out actually, and I didn't say I felt bullied by you I said you were a bully. I rest my case.
I have no idea what else you are talking about unless the technique you refer to is making fake videos but you are full of shit.
Maybe I am missing the context that is needed but that did not make any sense to me.
(I am having a tough day at work though)
You need to read Anthony's original bilge for the context. He was trying to shit on a thread of commenters for saying that "it didn't matter if the video is fake, as sexism happens daily, in any case". Piers did this with a similarly viral video before, and this somehow makes it an invalid thing to say.
Bacause you know, Piers.
Some illiterate nonsense, no wonder people are having a hard time following.
At least he's 'rested his case' now. A minor victory for bandwidth.
I'm not "sharing feelings" - I'm pointing out you pull this stuff a lot. Then you hide behind "calling people out".
I don't feel bullied in the slightest. I find it weird that someone who shouts sexism at people tells others to "grow a pair". Do bollocks make you a better person or does talking bollocks just make you feel like a better person?
The deep irony is you'll happily shout that other people's views are tripe and get defensive when you're called or yourself.
Nobody has verified that this was actually staged, have they? It's purely an unverified rumour that it might have been?
The way she stopped the bike and went for that wing mirror looked totally real to me. She nearly went over the bars, I'd imagine that was the red mist, hard to imagine that was staged.
Well I for one was fuming yesterday at the video of the woman knocked off her bike and after it was all captured on video the met decided there was no further action as she wasn't killed or seriously injured. What kind of approach is that to road safety?
Unfortunately a culture of harassment and intimidation exists on London 's roads because of the rank indifference of law and order on the roads. I was subject to this when hit by an uber driver last year who deliberately pulled across me. He wasn't prosecuted for hitting me, he was prosecuted because he drove off and in effect free to injure and wound at will as a result.
So, yes if I see what looks like intimidation/harassment it touches a nerve. The clowns who made this really ought to take a look at themselves as whilst their video might be fake, intentional harassment and intimidation of cyclists is very real on London's roads.
I remember seeing Ken Campbell talk once, and he described how he had done some "micro-adverts" for Cobra Beer with this film company that specialized in producing "you've been framed" style videos, that were very short but very realistic. Obviously some are clearly fake, some look a bit suspicious, and who knows how many slip through?
Hmm, so it was faked, oh well.
"watched 10 million times on Facebook"
Who cares about truth when fake news is so much more profitable...?
So the purpose of seeding this fake story was...??? Clickbait money? Winding up the cyclists? Winding up the Daily Heil readers? Winding up White Van Man? Feeling a bit clever and superior? I wonder (I'd guess the money, but there might be actual principles involved, you never know...).
£2.5 mil last year, and that's all she wrote.
Why would posts condemning sexism be pompous, even if the video did turn out to be a stunt.
You're not going all alt-right on us are you?
Certainly not alt-right, that would make me a turkey voting for Christmas... however, it was rather amusing to see the Piers Morgan defence invoked, that is, of course it was fake but it probably happened somewhere, sometime so it doesn't matter that it was fake ! Post-truth era and all that.
What the living bilge-shart was did that mean. Sexism and catcalling DOES happen everywhere. Get into the sea with your Piers Morgan hypersensitivity.
Speaking of bilge what you have written in that first sentence doesn't make a lot of sense but you were the one behaving like Piers Morgan, you obviously didn't get the reference. I have no idea what Piers Morgan hypersensitivity is supposed to mean but you seem to be getting nasty and aggressive for no reason. A bit of an internet bully, methinks.
dont worry Anthony this is absolutely par for the course I had it yesterday.
I thought the mirror came off a bit easily.
I just noticed that, no need to wipe my arse.
They're in the article linked in the article above these comments.
Anyone else's arse need wiping for them?
Those bulders dereved it TOTALLY and i am on the side of that girl who did the rite thing. Its a dog eat log world out there and if you cant do the time you can pay the fine.
Hardly needs to be said here that drivers often behave badly/aggressively towards cyclists, plus most women I know have fresh stories about moronic behaviour from strange blokes in the street almost every time I meet them.
But this kind of stupid stunt is annoying. Not only is there Yorkshire Wallet's point, but there's just something insufferably self-congratulatory about such shennanigans. It's a bit Nathan Barley crossed with Jeremy Beadle (and nobody wants that).
This sort of thing doesn't help anyone. For all the 'highlighting' it does, it now puts the seed of doubt into people's mind when it does really happen that it's just another stupid viral fraud and people will turn the other cheek.
What next? Fake viral vids of people being knocked off bikes (bit of MTB body armour in the right places under baggy clothes, probably get away unhurt)? It's hard enough to get people to give a fuck in the first place without this sort of thing putting doubt in people's minds.
My thoughts exactly!
Impressed to find that Road.Cc newsdesk is on the case here
.
Took them a while...
http://road.cc/content/news/217926-video-cyclists-revenge-sexist-london-...
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