Jail sentence sought for YouTuber over social experiment video

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul court has indicted an Azerbaijani social media influencer, Fariz Bakhshaliyev, for public incitement to hatred or hostility after sharing a video that made a massive splash on social media.

The prosecutor stated that Bakhshaliyev acted with the intention of creating social indignation while demanding that he should be sentenced to imprisonment for up to one and a half years for this reason.

In a video shared last year under the name of “social experiment,” a 9-year-old water seller, identified only by the initials M.B.K., was seen giving 10 Turkish Liras ($1.30) to Bakhshaliyev, who asked him for money because he was hungry.

After the footage went viral on social media, it was determined that the video was actually fake as a result of works carried out by police terms, and Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation for the same.

Bakhshaliyev, however, stated that he shot many videos about children who make a living by selling water and that he acted to raise awareness on social media about them.

He also stressed that there was no criminal intent in the incident.

But the family of M.B.K. noted that their son was humiliated in the video, that the psychology of their child was deteriorated due to the incident, and that they were offended as a family in the society.

Bakhshaliyev will appear before the judge at the Bakırköy Criminal Court in the coming days.