The Gist

BUKNOY GLAMURRR AND THE STORY OF AN INFLUENCER WHO KEEPS MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES OVER AND OVER AGAIN

It seems that the whole Filipino side of the internet has heard of the young creator from one incident or another, because of his behavior that has brought him under constant public scrutiny. This time, netizens are taking count.

PAULINE NACAR / 21 April 2021

Over the weekend, content creator and “influencer” Buknoy Glamurrr has joined the ranks of Trending Topics yet again because of another incident that netizens have brought to light. In a TikTok live video, content creator Gabo Adeva recorded a call with “Awra,” who was later revealed to be Buknoy pretending to be the actor. In the supposed call, Buknoy acted as Awra in answering Gabo’s intrusive questions about the young actor’s career, and his relationship with couple Vice Ganda and Ion Perez.

A number of problematic things arose from this role playing, with Buknoy stating things meant to incriminate Awra, Vice, and Ion and stir up issues between the three. It can also be remembered that Buknoy and Awra don’t have the best relationship as they have been engaged in previous public feuds online. This bit of context takes the issue even one step further as it seems to have been done with the ill-intent to make fun of Awra.

As the issue grew online and more people called out Buknoy for the distasteful “joke”, they went on Tiktok live again to apologize for the things they said and did. Two of his handlers and managers under Star Image Artist Management were also in the video, and were visibly upset and angry with him and Gabo for the repeat offense. They also corrected Buknoy’s apology on the spot, and emphasized his incorrect use of the word “unintentional”, as they insisted that the young influencers knew perfectly well what they was doing when they recorded the video.

Star Image Artist Management also published a statement rebuking Buknoy and Gabo’s actions, and stated that they’ll be suspended for a month and required to pay a fee of P100,000 for misconduct.

 

Netizens are continuing to call out Buknoy, and emphasizing the gravity of his role playing act. From identity theft to defamation, this incident is definitely a lot more serious than his previous offenses, and people are raging to de-platform him. As someone who has been in numerous incidents of disrespect, ignorance, and just downright problematic behavior, netizens are asking why he even remains to have a platform in the first place. Especially when he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again, without showing any signs of growth or learning.

In fact, this incident is the latest addition to his long list of apologies published online. After each time that he was called out, he always posted a video right after aiming to correct his wrongs. Or at least, to show his deep regret over hurting the audience and other people involved. But, as it’s painfully clear that he’s not taking in these experiences to educate and improve himself, the Internet has had enough.

 

Buknoy has over 258K subscribers on YouTube, 4.2M followers on TikTok and 491K followers on Instagram. Gabo, on the other hand, has his fair share of internet popularity with a bulk of his following coming from his TikTok account with over 1.3M subscribers.

These numbers alone prove that these two local “influencers” have enough of a platform to be truly influential in spreading false information, and promoting harmful behavior—something that the two seriously need to reflect on. Especially given the fact that they are young creators with young followers. This demands from them a stronger sense of responsibility over the content they choose to share and promulgate online.

Just because they are underage creators pushed at the forefront of social media’s critical eye, it doesn’t excuse their behavior and consistent irresponsibility. If anything, it demands a greater need for the rest of the digital community to educate, call out, and reprimand them before it’s too late. However, this can only be possible if Buknoy and Gabo themselves take these experiences seriously, and commit to learning from it and doing better.