Did Luigi Mangione schedule a YouTube video titled "The Truth" to be published in anticipation of his arrest? No, that's not true: The YouTube account that published a video titled "The Truth" was impersonating Luigi Mangione, the man who has been charged in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The YouTube PR team told Lead Stories that the account has been removed for violating their policies covering impersonation. YouTube has also terminated three other channels owned by Mangione that had not been used in over seven months.
Several accounts on X published the claim originating from the fake YouTube account. One example (archived here) was published by @DramaAlert on December 9, 2024. The post was captioned:
Luigi Mangione reportedly scheduled a YouTube video titled 'The Truth' before his arrest. 😲‼️
'If you see this, I'm already under arrest' 'All is scheduled, be patient. Bye for now'
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Dec 10 16:35:26 2024 UTC)
The post contains the photo of Mangione (above left) that appears on Mangione's real X account, @PepMangione (archived here). The profile picture appeared on the now deleted fake YouTube account impersonating Mangione -- youtube.com/@PepMangion (archived here). The small profile picture is visible (above right) in the 1:03-minute-long screen capture video, which shows a copy of the YouTube video titled "The Truth" as well as the account, title and video statistics of likes and views.
The video has text boxes superimposed over a countdown timer that goes from 60 seconds to zero. The text says:
The Truth
If you see this, I'm already under arrest.
After the countdown finishes, at the 1:12 minute mark in the video, text appears that reads:
Soon...
Dec 11th
All is scheduled, be patient. Bye for now.
The @TeamYouTube account replied under this post on X (archived here) on December 9, 2024:
Chiming in to confirm that our teams terminated this channel for violating our impersonation policies, after carefully reviewing a number of signals
Lead Stories reached out to YouTube by email on December 10, 2024, requesting comment about the @PepMangion account removal, and asking about another account -- @PepMagion, which at the time was still up (pictured below) but has since been removed.
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Tue Dec 10 15:10:51 2024 UTC)
Nicole Bell, with YouTube's global PR team, responded with a brief statement but did not immediately address the question of the @PepMagion account. She wrote:
Details about our enforcement.
We terminated the channel in question for violating our policies covering impersonation, which prohibit content intended to impersonate another person on YouTube.
The channel's metadata was updated following widespread reporting of Luigi Mangione's arrest, including updates made to the channel name and handle.
Additionally, we terminated 3 other channels owned by the suspect, per our Creator Responsibility Guidelines.
These channels had not posted content in over 7 months.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims regarding Luigi Mangione or the shooting of Brian Thompson can be found here and here.
