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A YouTube video where a young man believes he and his best friend are kidnapped — and where his best friend pretends to be murdered by a masked man — has incited outrage from thousands of people.

A YouTuber by the name of Sam Pepper decided to play a prank on a Vine user named Sam Golbach. Pepper got Golbach’s best friend Colby Brock to get in on the joke.

In the video, Golbach and Brock are seen driving down a quiet road when their car suddenly stops. When the friends get out to investigate, a masked man approaches Golbach, throws a black hood over his head, ties him up, and throws him in the trunk. 

The video then cuts to a rooftop, where Golbach and Brock are tied up in chairs next to each other. The masked man points a gun at Brock’s head, as Golbach pleads for his friend’s life. Then suddenly, the gun fires, and Golbach cries and screams in distress.

After a short while, Brock gets back up to assure his friend that’s he’s okay. But Golbach is clearly visibly shaken.

The end of the video shows Golbach a couple of days later, smiling and saying, “That was crazy. Props to you guys, that was insane.”

But YouTube fans and viewers aren’t so forgiving. They’re calling the prank “cruel,” “vile,” and “disgusting.”

We’ve reached out to Sam Pepper on Twitter but we’ve yet to hear back.

The video seems to have caught the attention of Anonymous, the international hacking collective, which claims to have posted Sam Pepper’s home address, IP address, email address, and phone number online.

Pepper’s video was first uploaded to YouTube on Sunday. As of Wednesday afternoon, the video has well over 4 million views, and a Change.org petition has been signed by over 153,000 people who are demanding YouTube deactivate Sam Pepper’s channel in light of the video.

The petition claims Pepper broke two major YouTube guidelines, including the posting of “violent or graphic content,” as well as “harmful or dangerous content.” 

Despite the backlash against this video, YouTube claims it does not break its community guidelines. Therefore, the video will remain on the site.

Meanwhile, Golbach is actually defending Pepper and his video, despite being victimized for the sake of a prank. He posted this note via Twitter:

Sam Pepper has been the center of controversy before. Last year, he uploaded a video where he appeared to pinch women from behind with a fake hand. Though six women accused him of sexual assault and the video received numerous complaints from viewers, Pepper denied those claims, saying the video was a prank and a social experiment.

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