David Hogg, a survivor from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, slammed claims he was an actor being propped up by the media following an online smear campaign to discredit the student journalist.
The 17-year-old has been one of many survivors in the public eye rallying for stricter gun laws, which is being led by students from MS Douglas High School in the wake of the shooting that left 17 people dead.
Since the shooting, a campaign to discredit the students has circulated in the media, with some accused of being paid actors travelling between the sites of mass shootings to protest for stricter gun control.
Hogg appeared on CNN to deny the claims.
"I'm not a crisis actor," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
"I'm someone who had to witness this and live through this and I continue to be having to do that...I'm not acting on anybody's behalf."
YouTube and Facebook remove content
A video peddling the theory that Hogg was a crisis actor appeared to be a top trending video on YouTube on Wednesday morning. A resurfaced CBS Los Angeles broadcast clip showed Hogg talking about an old incident involving a lifeguard on a beach in California.
However, the version featuring predominantly on YouTube suggested Hogg was a 'crisis actor', or paid by anti-gun groups to travel to scenes of shootings and promote stricter gun laws.
A YouTube spokesperson told Time Magazine the video should never have appeared in the Trending section.
"Because the video contained footage from an authoritative news source, our system misclassified it. As soon as we became aware of the video, we removed it from Trending and from YouTube for violating our policies," a YouTube spokesperson said.
"We are working to improve our systems moving forward."
Facebook also condemned the "abhorrent" content after unsubstantiated news stories and videos were featured when typing in David Hogg. Facebook was removing the content.
