‘An incident on the zipline’: Influencer demands money to remove erroneous video

A still showing a Montreal zipline employee fulfilling a challenge (left) as shared by mtlzipline on TikTok, and two images (centre and right) from influencer Lovepreet Singh setting the record straight about the "incident" he witnessed on the zipline.

What started as an influencer’s viral video showing an “incident” on the zipline in Montreal’s Old Port has turned into an online row and a questionable exchange of money.

“Between what actually happened on the zipline and what ended up on the internet, let’s just say there’s quite a gap,” said Samuel Cadotte, president of Tyrolienne MTL Zipline, which he calls Canada’s largest urban zipline.

He explains that last Friday, one of his employees decided to take on a “challenge that some team members have been setting themselves for several years.”

That is, try to climb back up the zipline after flying to the bottom.

“It requires incredible physical strength and very few people manage it. Our employee succeeded,” he shared, acknowledging that the timing — 6 p.m. — was perhaps not ideal.

“His shift had just finished, and there were still plenty of people on site,” Cadotte said. “Usually, this sort of challenge is undertaken early in the morning when the site is quieter.”

‘Incident’ on the zipline

While the employee was working on his challenge, Lovepreet Singh, a Halifax, N.S.-based content creator who was in Montreal on vacation with his family, filmed him and posted a video to social media, calling it an “incident on the zipline.”

“I was taking pictures of my family. I turn around, and all of a sudden I see ... somebody is still over there,” he tells CTV News. “I could see somebody is still, he’s not moving forward, he’s still. I’m looking at him, he’s going backwards. I’m like, going backwards?”

The 30-year-old says he immediately thought someone had gotten stuck on the zipline.

“It’s like, OK, this might be somebody who was trying to go down,” Singh said. “My first thing was obviously, I’m a social media guy, so ... I open up my camera. I start recording.”

For his part, Cadotte confirms: “There was no accident, no injury and no equipment failure.”

“For someone unfamiliar with the zipline, I can understand that the footage might be surprising,” he said. “If you watch the video closely, you can see that the employee is calm, in control of his movements, and deliberately continuing his ascent.”

After Singh posted his video online, it went viral, garnering more than one million views within the first 24 hours.

“We suddenly found ourselves having to reassure a huge number of people about an accident that had never happened,” lamented Cadotte.

Singh defends himself by pointing out that he never mentioned the business name, nor did he say anything negative about what he was witnessing.

“I didn’t mention anything saying that this is dangerous, don’t go there, this could happened to you,” Singh tells CTV News. “Just in a funny way that it happened or somebody’s stuck.”

He argues that there were also no signs or indications that a challenge was underway, adding that he wasn’t the only one filming — he just happens to be an influencer with a wide reach.

“I’m posting, I’m getting money out of it. So, I posted it. It went wild. I was making money out of it. I was making money,” said Singh.

Business or extortion?

Cadotte notes that as soon as he found out about the video, he immediately attempted to contact Singh to explain what happened and have him remove it.

“Our aim wasn’t to start an online battle,” he insisted. “We wanted to protect our employee, reassure the public and correct false information before it gained even more traction.”

Singh says he told Cadotte, “I’m a social media guy. I get paid to post. I get paid to remove or whatever because that thing is already making me money. If I remove it, I will stop making money because that’s my business.”

That’s when, according to Cadotte, things started to go awry.

“He explained that this video was, by far, the most popular he’d ever posted,” he said. “He understood that this was not a genuine incident and that the post was having a negative impact on our company. Despite this, he refused to correct or remove it, claiming that doing so could damage his reputation as an influencer.”

Cadotte claims Singh demanded a “substantial sum” to remove the video.

Singh denies this, insisting that he asked for $200.

“I posted in the intent of the video to get engagement and obviously make money,” he said. " A lot of people have labelled me as saying that this is an extortion thing or whatever, but my social media is a business for me. This is legal. I have tax information, everything, for my social media."

He says he also offered to create a new video correcting himself for a price of $400.

The two ended up agreeing on a package deal of $300, which Cadotte paid.

“We chose to pay to have the post removed quickly and to limit the damage,” said Cadotte. “At the same time, we documented every step, kept a record of all communications, involved the police and took the necessary steps to recover the money.”

Racist backlash

Singh says since the incident, he has received backlash and racist remarks from individuals online.

“People are coming in my emails, my comments, my DMs,” he said. “I always receive this kind of racist comments, but now it’s gone way up.”

He admits he thought the conversation with Cadotte had ended on a good note, with the two even collaborating on his correction video.

“I made a video, I edited everything, and he said, ‘You know what? Can you send me the video? I want to see what it is, and I won’t post it, but I want to see what magic you did,’” Singh said. “He was cool with it.”

He adds that he was surprised to find out that Cadotte had contacted the police.

“Now, the thing has taken a different tone. He has filed a complaint or whatever saying that there was extortion money or whatever,” said Singh. “This is not extortion. This is my business. My social media is my source of income. I post to pay. I get paid to post, and I get paid to remove.”

Cadotte says now that the file has been handed over to police, “I will leave it to the authorities to determine the appropriate classification.”

“We’re not asking a content creator to remove a post simply because we don’t like it,” he said. “We’re only asking for a minimum of cooperation when information is proven to be false. Correcting it, adding the proper context or, if necessary, removing the post seems to me to be a matter of responsibility and respect.”

The Montreal zipline has been operational since 2015, welcoming more than 500,000 participants in the last decade.