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6 months ago
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The teenage TikTok joker who went viral after being arrested on Whitehall as he filmed a 'prank' on the King's Guard's horses insists his stunts are 'harmless' and simply an attempt to make some money from going viral.
MailOnline can reveal @ymusa18, the joker who was cuffed by armed Ministry of Defence police outside the Household Cavalry Museum on Thursday, is 17-year-old Musa Raza, from Ilford, east London.
Mr Raza says he aspires to be like Mizzy - the troublesome video-sharing lawbreaker who has since vowed to change his ways after being convicted of breaching court orders and stealing a mobile phone - but with 'harmless' jokes on the public.
Like other young TikTokers, he says he wants to reach the point where he can make money from his viral videos - which is only possible after accumulating a certain number of followers and views.
But his determination to make money has seen him take unnecessary risks: challenging armed police at Buckingham Palace and being stopped and searched outside Downing Street after he appeared to suggest he was carrying an explosive.
Musa Raza, 17, is the prankster who was carted off by armed police on Thursday after getting into an altercation as he filmed a 'prank' outside the Household Cavalry Museum
The teenager says his pranks, including those where he treats police vehicles as taxis (left) and pretends to fall asleep on strangers on the Elizabeth Line (right) are 'harmless'
He films himself in areas of tight security, such as outside Buckingham Palace and Downing Street (above)
But he has put himself and others at risk with other 'jokes', including this moment near No 10 when he was searched after appearing to suggest he was carrying an explosive in his bag
And his prank on Whitehall on Thursday, which saw irate members of the public tell him to 'f*** off' as they labelled him a 'rude b******', saw him strong-armed out of sight by police carrying deadly Colt Canada C8 carbine rifles.
Despite this, and other videos where he pretends to fall asleep on members of the public or pesters them for high-fives as he rides escalators on the London Underground, he refuses to believe he is putting himself, or others, in harm's way.
'It's just my TikTok,' he told MailOnline when asked why he would seek to deliberately draw the ire of armed police and the public.
'As you can see my TikToks are harmless. It's just little pranks.
'I plan before I do my videos. I know where the line is. I know the stuff I'll do will not get me shot or arrested.'
Videos on Mr Musa's current TikTok account, which he set up around a year ago, typically gather views in the tens of thousands.
He wants to build a large following of more than 10,000 followers and build large view counts on his videos so he can apply for payouts from TikTok and make money from his 'jokes' like his idol, the infamous tearaway Mizzy.
Ironically, the teenager's biggest hit to date wasn't even on his profile - but in viral YouTube footage that was later shared on X, formerly Twitter, of Mr Raza being told to 'f*** off' by irate members of the public.
The teen gatecrashed tourists' pictures with the horse on Whitehall as he filmed himself 'interviewing' the equine and its famously stoic rider, angering those trying to take pictures while visiting London.
As he was told to 'p*** off' by one bystander, Mr Raza got argumentative and was pushed back - prompting armed Ministry of Defence (MoD) police to run out from the museum and cart him off to the side.
A protesting Mr Raza could be heard saying: 'I didn't do s***, I didn't do s***, did you not see what happened, mate? I'm calm, I'm calm, no need to grab my neck bro, no need to grab my neck. I did not threaten no-one, you know.'
He was then handcuffed and led inside the compound, flashing a grin to the person filming for his TikTok. He now claims he was de-arrested off-camera.
'The police didn't have to get involved. They got involved because of a member of the public. I went up to him, we had an argument and he came at me,' he said.
'I was taken aside, behind the horses, they got my details, they called more officers and then they de-arrested me because they saw the clips and saw that there wasn't an actual offence.'
Approached for comment on Mr Raza's claims, the MoD declined to comment.
A clip from one of Musa Raza's videos where he claims he will scale the gates of Buckingham Palace after his video is 'liked' enough times. He has since backtracked on this
Musa went viral after he was filmed harassing members of the King's Guard outside the Household Cavalry Museum on Whitehall in London
He then confronts a YouTuber who tells him to 'f*** off', labelling him a 'rude b******' as the situation escalates
The TikToker is then arrested by police under suspicion of committing a public order offence. he told MailOnline he was later de-arrested
The teen says he makes his 'harmless' videos - like those where he climbs into the back of police cars and pretends they are taxis - to build his following up to 10,000 people, so he can apply for financial payouts from TikTok.
But his hunger for fame lands him in regular trouble with the law, and he acknowledges that, in his pursuit of huge viewing figures, he may one day find himself on the business end of an armed police officer's gun.
One video sees him climbing through a building site to reach the roof - not only illegal but potentially dangerous, with the area covered in scaffolding and unsafe fixtures.
Last month, he filmed himself outside Downing Street where he said, in full view of armed police: 'Rishi Sunak, I've got a message for you. If I see you on the street, there's gonna be problems, you get it?'
He adds: 'Your little minions, they ain't going to do nothing about it' - immediately before an armed police officer opens the gate and tells him to behave.
Sometime later, he is led away by police further down Whitehall after seemingly suggesting he had an explosive in his bag.
'You tried to say you've got something in your bag,' a police officer can be heard saying. 'You mentioned C4 (a plastic explosive).'
The video ends with him stepping out of Charing Cross Police Station after collecting his stop and search form, boldly proclaiming: 'Yes lads, I'm free now. The police can't hold me. What have I done? I'm innocent, yeah?'
He also dared police to arrest him after crossing the threshold of the gates at Buckingham Palace in front of armed cops, who told him: 'Don't push your luck.'
In a subsequent video, he promised to scale the gates of Buckingham Palace if the clip got 5,000 likes, a figure he later revised to 15,000. It now has 36,000.
Mr Raza insisted today that he wouldn't really be climbing the gates of the Palace, saying the video was uploaded 'just for the views'.
'I'd probably be arrested or shot but I'm not going to cross that line,' he said.
'That's crossing the line and I'm not going to do it.'
But while he hopes to build enough followers to become eligible for payouts, TikTok's Creator Rewards Program says it will only pay out to those creating videos with content that 'aligns with our mission of inspiring joy and creativity'.
Mr Raza's clips of himself being pinned to walls by police are unlikely to meet that criteria. And previous TikTok funds for video-makers have been criticised for their paltry payouts, sometimes just a handful of dollars for videos getting million of hits.
But the teenager says he wants to be like Mizzy, whom he called a 'friend', after the one-time TikTok terror claimed to have made £100,000 from his videos, according to an interview he gave to the Daily Star.
His pranks are similar to those committed by Mizzy (above), who has since renounced his pranking antics after being convicted of several offences
Mizzy's pranks saw him sneaking into strangers' houses (left) and riding e-bikes through supermarkets (right)
A violent joker labelled the 'female Mizzy' was filmed punching strangers in the face in shops and on the London Underground. Mr Raza says he does not want to be like her
The money did not come from TikTok, which regularly banned his accounts, but from YouTube advertising revenue, promotions on social media and donations from fans.
The prankster, real name Bacari-Bronze O'Garro, has now put his pranking days behind him, with a young son to raise and a criminal record for theft and breaching court orders that will likely affect his future.
Nevertheless, Mizzy has inspired copycats - including a woman who appeared to film herself punching strangers outside the Westfield Stratford shopping centre and on the London Underground.
Mr Raza insists he doesn't want to make those kinds of videos - and is braced for the hate he has received for those he has filmed to date.
And he insists that he is not betting his future on pranks - with plans to study construction at college in September after dropping out of another course this year.
He said: 'I've got a few TikTok friends, I'm Mizzy's friend as well. From their experience they've made a lot of money from TikTok and that's what I want to do.
'On TikTok you need over 10,000 followers to get payouts. That's what my goal is - from there you start getting paid.
'Some of them are just for the views but the difference between me and people like Mizzy and that girl who was slapping people is that they're targeting people, like Mizzy going into people's houses. Not me.
'And on TikTok, on social media, you're going to get hate from anything you do. If you can't handle hate it's not for you.
'There was a video I did on my old TikTok profile where I bought some shoes and clothes and gave them to a homeless person. I got hate for that, without doing anything.
'People said I was just doing it for the views but that one wasn't for the views, it was just to do something good.'
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