YouTube has apologized for inadvertently promoting a video that aimed to further the conspiracy theory that David Hogg and other Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students are so-called “crisis actors.” A video with the caption “DAVID HOGG THE ACTOR” in which the teen who survived last week’s shooting in Parkland, Florida can be seen speaking to a local Southern California reporter about an unrelated incident in Redondo Beach, briefly became YouTube’s #1 trending video Wednesday morning. “This video should never have appeared in Trending. Because the video contained footage from an authoritative news source, our system misclassified it,” a statement issued by YouTube read. “As soon as we became aware of the video, we removed it from Trending and from YouTube for violating our policies. We are working to improve our systems moving forward.” The video had been used by fringe websites to falsely claim Hogg was being paid to speak out about gun control in the wake of the mass shooting. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Hogg said he welcomes the conspiracy theories because “It makes me know that what I’m doing is right,” adding, “They’re only helping our cause.”
