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Spanish YouTuber found guilty of humiliating beggar

A YouTuber in Spain was sentenced to 15 months in jail and 20,000 euros for posting a video in which he offered a homeless man biscuits stuffed with toothpaste, a court said Friday.

Spanish YouTuber found guilty of humiliating beggar
Photo: agencyby/Depositphotos

Kan-Hua Ren, known as ReSet, was found guilty of an offence against moral integrity in his video published in January 2017 on his channel and since removed, the Barcelona court said.

He was sentenced to 15 months in jail, which he won't likely have to serve.

Sentences of up to two years are generally not implemented in Spain for first-time offenders in non-violent crimes.

Ren was also ordered to pay 20,000 euros in compensation to the victim and his channels will be closed down for five years.

“Challenged” by one of his followers, Ren, who was 19 at the time, filmed himself removing cream from inside biscuits and replacing it with toothpaste.

Then he gave them to a Romanian beggar along with a 20-euro bill.

“Maybe I went a little far, but let's look at the positive side, it will help him clean his teeth, I don't think he has often brushed his teeth since he became poor,” Ren told his followers, according to a court document.

The homeless man threw up, wrote the judge in her verdict dated May 29.

The video sparked an outcry, so Ren posted a new one in which he went back to see the man and gave him another 20 euros.

“If I had done this with a normal person, no-one would have said a thing, but as he is a beggar people are complaining,” he said in a message accompanying the video, according to the court document.

Among the 200 most influential Spanish-speaking personalities on YouTube at the time, police said he then tried to stop the victim making a complaint in exchange for 300 euros and yet another video in which he would spend the night with him.

Police added he targeted other vulnerable people in other videos on his channel, where he earned money through advertising.

“I do things for showmanship, people like anything morbid,” he told the court.

On Friday, Ren's two YouTube channels, which respectively have more than 1.2 million and 250,000 followers, were still online.

READ ALSO: YouTuber accused of sexual assault for 'stealing kisses' in the street

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FACEBOOK

Denmark proposes new law to make Facebook pay for news and music

The government is to forward a bill on Friday proposing tech giants such as Facebook and Google pay Danish media for using content on their platforms.

Denmark proposes new law to make Facebook pay for news and music
File photo: Regis Duvignau/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix

The proposal will also mean platforms used to share media, such as YouTube, will be required to make agreements with rights holders in order to display videos or music, the Ministry of Culture said in a statement.

A comparable law recently took effect in Australia, resulting in all news pages being temporarily blocked for Facebook users in the southern hemisphere country.

READ ALSO: Could Denmark force Facebook to pay for news content?

“The media plays a central role in our democracy and ensures that public debate takes place on an infrormed basis,”culture minister Joy Mogensen said in the statement.

“If the media are to be able to continue making journalism, they should of course be paid for its use,” she added.

The proposal will provide for rights holders such as musicians or media outlets to be given a new publishing right which will enable them to decide who can use their content.

As such, companies like Facebook and Google will need permission to use the content online.

The Danish proposal builds on an EU directive which gives individual media outlets the right to agree deals with tech giants.

The bill put forward by Mogensen will allow Danish media to make a collective agreement with the tech companies providing for payment when their content is used.

An interest organisation for Danish media companies has backed the proposal.

“We have wanted to be able to enter collective agreements with tech giants because that would strengthen the media companies’ position,” Louise Brincker, CEO of Danske Medier, told newspaper Berlingske. Brincker noted she had not yet read the full proposal.

Media will not be obliged to make agreements with the tech companies, however. Complaints to the Danish copyright board, Ophavsretslicensnævnet, will be possible under the new law, should it be passed by parliament.

The bill will become law on June 7th should it receive the backing of a parliamentary majority.

Both Facebook and Google decline to comment to Berlingske on the matter, stating they had yet to see the bill in full.

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