Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodia is mulling to take legal action against troublemaker YouTubers who allegedly torture and harass monkeys at a major heritage site to draw viewers online and earn cash.

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A crowd of YouTubers is often seen at the Angkor UNESCO World Heritage Site, filming the wild animals but sometimes going a step forward and deliberately tormenting them to generate views.

Now, APSARA, or the Authority for the Protection of the Site and Management of the Region of Angkor has decided to put a break to the illicit activities by tightening the legal noose.

"They're making the content to earn money by having views on YouTube, so this is a very big issue for us," Long Kosal, a spokesperson for APSARA, said in an interview with the Associated Press.

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"The monkey should be living in the wild, where they are supposed to be living, but the monkey nowadays is being treated like a domestic pet," Long Kosal said.

Disturbing acts

The Associated Press in its report cited several disturbing examples of such YouTubers torturing monkeys and animals in order to fetch more views.

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In one example, a man held a baby animal by its neck as it struggled and squirmed and repeatedly doused it with water.

In another instance, a person caressed the genitals of a male macaque to get it excited for the camera.

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Long Kosal believes legal action can be taken against such people if a strong case is built. "If we can build a case, they will be arrested for sure. Any animal abuser will be seriously punished by law in Cambodia," he was quoted as saying by the news agency.

How do social media platforms allow such content?

While online social media platforms, like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram remove graphic content involving animals, videos showing them playing, jumping from one tree to another or showing them in close encounters with humans are allowed to be shared.

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This encourages more and more YouTubers to rely on handouts to shoot videos of close encounters. On the downside, however, this makes monkeys aggressive towards tourists.

"The tourists carry their food, and they would snatch the food," Long Kosal said. "If the tourists resist, they bite and this is very dangerous," he adds.

(With inputs from agencies)