Viral Countdown Video Supposedly From Luigi Mangione Is a Faux, YouTube Says

Have you ever seen a mysterious video that includes a countdown clock that purports to be from Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old “individual of curiosity” in final week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York? The video went viral Monday on YouTube, getting consideration on websites like Hacker News. But it surely’s utterly pretend.

Mangione reportedly had a “manifesto” in addition to a ghost gun and was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday. He was charged with 5 crimes, together with carrying a gun and not using a license, forgery, falsely figuring out himself to authorities, and possessing devices of crime, in response to a legal criticism posted online. However Mangione wasn’t charged with the homicide of Thompson and hasn’t been named as a suspect, even supposing the web is treating him as one.

A video popped up on Monday that seemed to be from a YouTube account related to Mangione. It opened with the phrases “The Fact” and “In the event you see this, I’m already below arrest.” It featured a countdown clock that first counted from 5 to 1 earlier than flipping to 60 and counting down all the way in which to zero from there.

The decrease proper nook included the phrase “Quickly” and briefly flashed the date Dec. 11 earlier than disappearing once more in lower than a second. It ended with the phrases “All is scheduled, be affected person. Bye for now.”

In the event you’re curious what the video truly regarded like, you possibly can check it out here, assuming YouTube doesn’t take this one down, too. We promise we’re not attempting to trick anybody with it. However it may be attention-grabbing to see what the fuss is all about after some hoax has gone viral however you missed it.

The account was created again in January 2024, and it’s fully doable for somebody to arrange a sort of dead man’s switch—they schedule a video to publish at some future time, aspiring to cease the auto-publish in the event that they haven’t been arrested (or killed, or regardless of the situation is likely to be). However YouTube confirmed to Gizmodo that it wasn’t actual.

“We terminated the channel in query for violating our insurance policies masking impersonation, which prohibit content material supposed to impersonate one other individual on YouTube,” a spokesperson for the video platform advised Gizmodo over e-mail Monday.

“The channel’s metadata was up to date following widespread reporting of Luigi Mangione’s arrest, together with updates made to the channel title and deal with,” the spokesperson continued. “Moreover, we terminated 3 different channels owned by the suspect, per our Creator Accountability Tips.”

The spokesperson additionally famous that these accounts had been dormant for months. Who is definitely behind the video? That is still unknown. However our cash is on one thing associated to crypto. Who is aware of?