00:00Is vigilante justice okay if the target of said justice is a predator?
00:04Why are you here to meet a 15-year-old boy?
00:05I'm just having dinner with him, that's all.
00:08Oh, you're just having dinner?
00:09That's the question at the heart of Vitaly's new kick-streaming series,
00:12in which he baits alleged predators, then puts them through challenges and forms of
00:16what could be described as torture for what they believe is a chance to go free.
00:20Vitaly has been making content for over a decade,
00:22and got his start with prank videos on YouTube.
00:24His first viral hit was a Miami zombie attack prank,
00:36where he pretended to be a zombie in poor areas of Miami and acted like he was going
00:40to attack bystanders. The video was inspired by a real incident in 2012 known as the Miami
00:45cannibal attack. Later that year, Vitaly was arrested after placing a suitcase near
00:54a man and telling him it was going to explode in 60 seconds.
00:57The man attacked Vitaly after he revealed that it was a prank.
01:00One of his most well-known pranks is the gold digger prank, where a woman rejects him,
01:04then he rolls up to her later in a Lamborghini and she shows interest,
01:07only for Vitaly to reject her for being shallow.
01:10While Vitaly found great success through his prank content even leading to a movie in 2016,
01:14he's also garnered a lot of controversy.
01:17Some believe that his pranks are fake and utilize hired actors as the victims.
01:21Others have problems with the content itself, with some videos arguably coming across as racist,
01:25sexist, or simply clickbaity.
01:27In 2015, H3H3 Productions and Filthy Frank posted a video criticizing Vitaly's
01:32feeding the homeless video as being disingenuous,
01:35particularly tearing apart the way he tries to paint himself as a good guy through the video.
01:39Guys, have you ever given a homeless person a dollar and had a friend hide in the bush
01:43and film it and then put it on the internet so you could make like ten thousand dollars?
01:47Well, that is a phenomenon that's been going on on YouTube a lot.
01:50And I'm starting to think that it's not about the dollar.
01:53Vitaly has been arrested numerous times for his content. He was arrested for climbing the
01:57Hollywood sign, for running onto the field during the FIFA World Cup in 2014,
02:01and for climbing the pyramids of Giza.
02:08Absolutely breathtaking. This is incredible, guys.
02:12Most recently, in 2020, he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman in Miami,
02:16who he purportedly tackled and hit several times in the face and chest.
02:20Now, Vitaly is in the middle of a big comeback with his insane predator poaching videos on Kik.
02:25In the videos, which are sponsored by the gambling site Steak and its streaming site Kik,
02:29he enlists the help of celebrities like Lil Pump, The Game,
02:32Sneeko, and Ty Dolla Sign to help him confront alleged predators.
02:36However, rather than approach the situations in a civil way with police at the ready like
02:40most predator poachers, Vitaly entices them to take part in challenges and uncomfortable
02:44situations with the promise of letting them go. Sometimes, the predators are asked to eat
02:49the world's hottest chip and get their heads shaved. Other times, they've had their faces
02:53spray-painted. In one video, Vitaly has a predator lay under a cow while he melts it
02:57all over the predator's face. In another, he tazes an alleged predator. Recently,
03:02he even tried to convince a predator to fight a sumo wrestler.
03:05— Straight up! Fight, baby!
03:08The streams have become incredibly popular and resulted in tons of viral moments,
03:12such as Akon singing locked up for a predator.
03:22However, they've also inspired discussions over the ethics of enacting vigilante justice
03:26like this on someone, even if they are an alleged predator. Vitaly's actions in the
03:31videos have also been scrutinized, with many wondering about the legality behind the videos
03:35and the way Vitaly handles the alleged predators. Vitaly claims that he does get the police involved
03:40in the cases after the fact, and recently tweeted out evidence of some of the predators featured in
03:44the videos being arrested, suggesting that these alleged predators never really had a chance to
03:49get away with their alleged crimes. Still, the future of these streams remains uncertain,
03:53as viewers wonder how long Vitaly can get away with them.
03:55— I'm going crazy!
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