The video may not be all it seems … but that’s not why it was pulled.
A heart-stopping video of a dog being rescued from an oncoming train is being removed from TikTok — not because it is possibly faked, but in spite of it being possibly faked.
The jaw-dropping clip, recorded by someone on a train track overpass, shows a man sprinting along the tracks, trying to outrun the approaching locomotive, its horns blaring.
“Oh my God he’s on the track! Get off the track!” the filmers yell. “Bro just leave it there! Leave it!”
The “it” they are referring to is immediately revealed to be a dog, tied by its leash to the railway, seconds away from being crushed. But the hero quickly scrambles to untie him, pulling the dog — and himself — out of the way at the last possible moment … or so it seems.
The video was viewed more than 4 million times before it was suddenly deleted, with the ‘hero’ being unilaterally praised for his selfless actions, and the perpetrators just as passionately condemned.
As the video began to pop up on other accounts, the love/hate in the comments was mirrored.
But according to some video experts — the clip is likely fake, albeit a very good one.
Professor Hany Farid, Associate Dean at Berkeley University, told Yahoo News: “I am fairly certain this video is fake.”
Farid is one of the six founding members of TikTok’s Content Advisory Council and a developer of the forensic software tech companies use to combat child exploitation and terrorism … and, in this case, fake animal rescue vids.
While he admitted the footage was “fairly well done in terms of manipulation,” he noticed that the shadow cast by the train and other objects in the video are inconsistent with the shadow cast by the “rescuer” — suggesting they were shot at different times of the day.
There was another hint too: the dog’s behavior.
“The way the dog reacts like he knows the guy, and that (the man) knows how to untie the leash, all as if it was planned,” Sarah Ross from animal welfare charity Four Paws International told Yahoo. “It looks suspicious.”
And while the dog may not have been fully aware of his supposed imminent doom— he seemed pretty chill for one who was about to be flattened.
Fake though it may be, the video was convincing enough for TikTok to remove it, as its community guidelines do not allow content that depicts or encourages users to partake in dangerous activities … even if there really was no danger.
“The safety and wellbeing of our community is our top priority,” a TikTok spokesperson told the outlet. “Our community guidelines make it clear that we do not allow content depicting dangerous behavior that might lead to injury.”
, Entertainment,International, ,