SHAME ON YOUTUBE
Web giant cashes in on vile video showing how to pierce stab vest... like one worn by murdered Westminster PC
A MAIL on Sunday investigation today exposes how Google has cashed in on a sickening YouTube video that shows viewers how to kill someone in a stab vest like the one worn by PC Keith Palmer when he was murdered in the Westminster terror attack.
The vile video was online for six months before the outrage and could be viewed for days afterwards, despite widespread warnings that jihadis use such material for training.
The seven-minute film, entitled How To Pierce A Stab-Proof Vest, demonstrates how to plunge a knife through protective body armour and has been viewed nearly a quarter of a million times – generating thousands of euro in advertising revenue.
The video was made by German weapons obsessive Jörg Sprave, who proudly displays on the wall of his living room a framed award from YouTube for attracting a million subscribers to his films.
The MoS easily found the film online despite promises made last week by YouTube owners Google to crack down on extremist material.
The revelation comes little more than a week after Khalid Masood mounted the pavement on London’s Westminster Bridge in a hired car, killing three people, before killing PC Palmer by stabbing him through the chest.
Yesterday, after being contacted by the MoS, YouTube removed the video – but it had already been online for more than six months, earning thousands of euro in advertising revenue from companies including Netflix – although they cannot choose the YouTube videos in which their adverts appear.
In the film, Sprave stands in a wooded area of his back garden in southern Germany explaining to viewers how they can modify a knife and its handle so it can be used to pierce a protective vest. The one he uses is similar to the vests worn by London’s Metropolitan Police officers.
He thrusts the knife through the stab vest which is attached to a makeshift dummy. ‘Wow, look at that, I pierced the safety vest,’ he boasts, adding: ‘As you can see, it definitely pierced deep enough to cause major harm.’
One member of the public commenting on the video wrote: ‘Thanks to you, a lot of people now know how to kill a police officer.’ When another YouTube viewer questioned why Sprave would teach people how to pierce a stab vest, he replied chillingly: ‘Because I can, obviously.’
And another outraged viewer wrote: ‘I work in corrections [prisons]. You are putting my life in danger.’
Sprave, 51, started making films on YouTube as a hobby around eight years ago. He became so successful with his channel that in January he gave up his job with a German electronics firm.
Yesterday, when approached by the MoS, Sprave defended the video. Interviewed at his former hunting lodge home in the village of Rothenburg near Heidelberg, he said: ‘I just want to show that people who wear these vests should not feel invincible. They are still vulnerable. These vests should not be described as stab proof.’
Wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan Fight Fire With Fire, he added: ‘I just test things and make videos to review all kinds of things like cameras, knives and air guns. If they change police equipment because I have shown it is vulnerable then I may be saving some lives.
‘I feel sorry about what happened to the policeman in London. He should have had a gun to protect himself.’
Police in the German state of Hessen were unavailable to comment yesterday. An unofficial police source in the local town of Erbach said: ‘We had to check on him once, but we found nothing wrong.’
Sprave’s other videos include an 11-minute clip entitled: ‘Shooting right through police riot gear?’ which has been viewed more than half a million times. During this video – which YouTube has also now removed – Sprave uses a custom-made weapon to fire a steel-tipped arrow through a German police riot shield. ‘Well, I think that policeman is dead,’ he says, inspecting the damage.
Internet users clicking on the stab video last week saw adverts automatically play on different occasions for Netflix, internet security firm OwlDetect and property website eMoov. An advert for Finnish music festival Flow Festival 2017 played before the riot shield video.
Those who post videos typically receive up to $7.60 per 1,000 views of an advert, meaning Sprave would have made nearly €1,700 from the stab video and over €3,500 from the riot shield video.
YouTube would have earned approximately €1,400 for the stab video and about €3,000 for the riot shield video.
Calum Macleod, vice-chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: ‘That anyone thinks it is acceptable to share content that could further put police officers, or any emergency service
workers, in harm is deplorable, disappointing and upsetting.’
YouTube said it had removed both videos but refused to reveal how much money it made from them. A spokeswoman said: ‘We have clear policies against inciting violence and harmful or dangerous activities and remove content that breaks our guidelines when we’re made aware of it.’
A spokesman for OwlDetect said: ‘We have stopped this advertising immediately and will review the ways in which we advertise with Google and YouTube.’
Russell Quirk, CEO of eMoov, said: ‘We... have no control over which content these [adverts] are associated with. We have contacted Google and have demanded our adverts are removed immediately.’
A spokesman for Netflix, the online service that streams movies, said: ‘We employ numerous filters to avoid having our content appear on sites or videos that clearly don’t represent us or our values.
‘While that works well most of the time, there are a small number of instances where it doesn’t and we are working closely with Google to close that gap further.’