The Alicante City Council has agreed to report the popular YouTuber Nil Ojeda Morales to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the viral challenge launched last July that encouraged people to simulate drownings on beaches in exchange for gifts from his clothing brand.
In the complaint, the city council will ask the Public Ministry to close Nil Ojeda’s social networks for this challenge that caused during the first weekend of July several cases of false drownings on the beaches of Postiguet and San Juan, which caused great confusion among the lifeguards of the municipal rescue device and that the lifeguard posts were neglected one day with a yellow flag due to the intense east wind.
Launched with the message “Find the rescue professional, go ahead and start acting: on the ground, drowned out of the water. If you deserve it, the prize will be given to you”, the viral proposal of the popular Nil Ojeda was followed by a considerable number of young people.
Then, the PP municipal government team took this case to its legal services, which concluded that the action may constitute a crime of simulation of danger (article 561 of the Penal Code) since it caused the mobilization of services. unjustified emergency.
The lawyers also consider that what happened violates Law 14/2010 on Public Entertainment of the Valencian Community by organizing an event that compromises public safety without proper authorizations, as well as the Alicante Civic Cohabitation Ordinance, which regulates free movement and prohibits activities that endanger safety in public spaces.
Likewise, the legal services consider that the challenge could violate Law 13/2022, known as the Influencers Law, by promoting an act likely to incite the commission of a crime, prohibited in audiovisual communications.
In addition to asking the prosecutor to close the social networks of Nil Ojeda Morales for the alleged crime of simulating danger, the City Council will open a sanction file for administrative infractions both at the regional and municipal level for non-compliance with the Entertainment Law and the municipal ordinance, requesting the corresponding sanctions.
At the same time, it will report to the national authorities any possible non-compliance with other regulations so that the respective sanction procedures can be initiated, in particular with regard to violations of the law on influencers, and will also communicate the profiles of the persons involved to the respective platforms in order to remove content, freeze their activity or close them permanently.
