The latest "social experiment" video to take off globally shows an apparently gay couple holding hands in downtown Moscow - and receiving harsh homophobic abuse.
The two young men stride hand-in-hand past some of Moscow‘s best-known landmarks. But it‘s far from a relaxed stroll - instead they are bombarded with a string of insults, culminating in a confrontation with very aggressive men who appear ready to beat them up.
International gay rights campaigners have frequently used the internet to oppose Russian policies, [including](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world- europe-26043872) during last year‘s Sochi Winter Olympics. But this wasn‘t a campaigning video: rather it was made by popular Russian YouTube pranksters. The video by ChebuRussiaTV has been watched more than 3 million times since it was posted on Monday.
"I was shocked by the reactions... They were just crazy. Every five minutes we would get a bad reaction," Nikita Rozhdesev, one of the filmmakers behind the video, tells BBC Trending. "We didn‘t know that so many people would watch it, but we knew that our subscribers would be interested in this topic."
Rozhdesev says the group filmed for about two to three hours and stuck to tourist areas in the centre of the city. The couple (two actors who in real life are neither a couple nor gay) can be seen walking through Red Square at several points. He says that although they were fearful when they were confronted by strangers, they were concerned that if they went into more conservative neighbourhoods, the abuse they faced would have been much worse.
The video prompted a huge debate online, much of it in Russian. More than 20,000 people commented on the YouTube video, and the chatter spilled over onto other social networks. "Great video!!!))) I recommend," one Moscow-based Twitter usercomments, while another Russian user says: "Russia is a fascist country".
But others vehemently disagreed, both with the premise of the film as well as the idea of gay rights: "Gays aren‘t the problem, but the fact that such video clips are filmed. There is no homophobia issue in Russia. There is a problem of gay propaganda," [says](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgm3lb9JUU0&lc=z13o upzbrqnazxpgo04cfb0w4l3phnrwjzg0k.) user Arseniy Dmitriyev. "Russia will be the only normal country where a child will have a father and a mother instead of ‘parent 1‘ and ‘parent 2‘ as in the rest of this crazy world," another YouTube user [comments](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgm3lb9JUU0&lc=z12pwh2 puxrge342i22pjjfaxzezyr4kg).
ChebuRussiaTV is a Moscow-based YouTube prank channel. It was started by a group of five friends, and their previous videos involved things like smearing Nutella on unsuspecting strangers in a bathroom and guides to picking up women - although, to be fair, the group hasn‘t shied away from more serious social issues in its "social experiments," such as canvassing the opinion of Russians on Ukraine and looking at the plight of veterans in Russia and the US.
Most of the group‘s videos are in Russian only, although the same-sex social experiment included English subtitles, which Rozhdesev says were added after the filmmakers realised how big the viewer numbers were getting. In addition to Russia the video was on YouTube‘s globally most-watched list and also in the top 10 in a number of Western countries including the US, France and Australia.
There‘s been an international debate about gay rights in Russia. But Rozhdesev denies the group chose the subject simply for its global viral potential . "We won‘t do a social topic just to get clicks," he says. "We have an idea, and if we feel passionate about it, we do it."
The group supports gay rights. "It‘s bad that in Russia people react like this," Rozhdesev says.
BBC reporters Iain Lee and Justin Dealey carried out a similar experiment on the streets of the English city of Luton
Homophobic abuse on the streets, as revealed by "social experiments," is not just a Russian phenomenon. A similar stunt, with broadly similar results, was carried out by a YouTube prankster in New York last year. And a hand-holding experiment by two male BBC reporters on the streets of the English city of Luton earlier this year also provoked insults - although neither shows the level of violence revealed in the Russian film.
Reporting by Olga Bugorkova, BBC Monitoring
最近“社会实验”节目播放了一对同性恋男人在莫斯科市中心手牵手的视频，收到了世界各地“恐同”们的严厉指责。
这两个年轻人紧拉着手走过了一些莫斯科最著名的地标性建筑。但是这绝对不是一次放松的闲逛，相反，他们遭受了一连串炮轰，最后差点和几个人打起来。
在去年索契冬季奥运会期间，国际同性恋权益人士们频繁地使用网络（包括网站http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world- europe-26043872）反对俄罗斯政策。不过这不是一段抗议视频，而是由一些俄罗斯流行的恶搞者制作的。周一，这段通过综艺节目ChebuRussiaTV播放的视频一经发布，点击量迅速突破三百万。
视频制作人之一，Nikita Rozhdesev告诉BBC Trending ，“我被这些反应震惊了，他们太疯狂了。每过五分钟，我们就会收到一个糟糕的回应。我们知道订阅者会对这个话题感兴趣，但是我们没有想到会有这么多人观看。”
Rozhdesev说整个团队在市中心的旅游区坚持拍摄了两到三个小时。这一对青年（实际上是两个演员在现实生活中既不是一对也不是同性恋）在红场的几个景点穿过。他说，虽然当他们面对陌生人时很恐惧，不过他们更担心当进入更保守的居民区时，将要面临的辱骂会更加严峻。
视频在网上引起了轩然大波，其中大多数人在俄罗斯。超过两万人对YouTube视频评论，在其他的社交网络上也开始议论纷纷。一名莫斯科的推特使用者评论说：“很棒的视频，我推荐”，然而另外一名俄罗斯的使用者说：“俄罗斯真是一个法西斯国家”。
但是其他人对视频的拍摄场地和同性恋权利的观点都强烈地反对，Youtube使用者Arseniy Dmitriyev说：“同性恋不是问题，而是去拍摄这些视频片段，俄罗斯没有恐同问题，问题是同性恋宣传。”（视频链接https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgm3lb9JUU0&lc=z13o upzbrqnazxpgo04cfb0w4l3phnrwjzg0k）另外一名YouTube使用者评论说：“不像其他疯狂的国家，孩子有‘父母1‘、‘父母2‘，俄罗斯将是唯一一个正常国家，孩子将有一个父亲和一个母亲。”（视频链接https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgm3lb9JUU0&lc=z12pwh2 puxrge342i22pjjfaxzezyr4kg）
ChebuRussiaTV是俄罗斯一档网络视频恶搞频道。由五个朋友一起创建，他们之前的视频包括像在厕所里往无戒心的陌生人身上抹巧克力酱，然后去找女人搭讪。即使，公平地说，这个团队没有在“社会实验”中回避更严肃的社会问题，比如调查俄罗斯人对乌克兰的看法以及老兵在俄罗斯和美国的境况。
大多数团队视频只在俄罗斯拍摄，即使同性社会实验包含了英文字幕，Rozhdesev说因为制片人意识到观看数量庞大，所以后期加上的。该视频除了在俄罗斯上了全球网络视频热门榜单，在美国、法国和澳大利亚等西方国家，也进入了前十名。
同性恋权利在俄罗斯已经成了国际性的争论问题。但是Rozhdesev否认团队选择这个话题只是因为它的全球扩散潜力。他说：“我们不是只为了点击量而去做一个社会话题，我们有一个想法，如果感觉对它有激情，我们就会去做。”
这个团队支持同性恋权利。Rozhdesev说：“俄罗斯人民有这样的反应，很糟糕。”(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/919C/production/84267273r ussia2.png)。
英国广播电台（BBC）记者Lain Lee和Justin Dealey在英国卢顿的街上也做了一个类似的实验，恐同的辱骂，就像“社会实验”揭露的一样，不仅仅是一个俄罗斯现象。去年纽约的一个网络视频恶搞者也做了一个类似的实验，也有几乎相同的结果。今年早些时候，在英国卢顿街头两个BBC男记者手拉手实验也激起了辱骂，不过没有到达俄罗斯视频里的暴力程度。
监听台Olga Bugorkova播报。