A Canadian vlogger has been facing ominous threats on social media after his latest trending video on Hong Kong chaos inadvertently exposed the hypocrisy of the so-called "peaceful protests."

Toby Guu, who visited Hong Kong expecting to witness the alleged police atrocities against "peaceful protesters" in line with international media reports, was left shocked by the violence unleashed by the masked rioters, compelling him to change his opinion and question the democratic credentials of the protesters.

"There wasn't as much police violence as I expected there to be. There was actually more violence from protesters," Guu told CGTN after witnessing and documenting the protest for one full day. In the end, he was convinced that the Hong Kong protesters' behavior went against democratic principles.

Guu tries to see HK police violence at the beginning

Toby Guu, a young social media influencer, had started traveling globally since 2017 and conceived the idea of visiting Hong Kong after reading stories about the protest in international media. 

"All the news that most of the news has been showing, like the protesters getting hurt," Guu told CGTN. 

The vlogger put his ideas bluntly at the very beginning of his video that was posted on YouTube on September 24. "I want to share the brutality, the pain and the difficulties of residents here in Hong Kong are experiencing every single day when they go and try to fight for the freedom," Guu said.

After packing his gear – including his camera equipment, a high-visibility yellow vest bought on Amazon, a photoshopped fake media pass and his Canadian passport – Guu sets out on his journey to Hong Kong.

However, all the expectations he had in the past broke him down after he arrived in Hong Kong on September 22. "I was expecting, you know, there's gonna be peaceful protests [by the protesters]," Guu told CGTN during an exclusive interview via Skype, adding that he expected on the other hand that there would "be a lot of violence [by the police], there's gonna be tear gas."

"And this is a type of footage, these are the type of pictures I want to take," he said.

Having witnessed the so-called "peaceful protests" for an entire day, the Canadian vlogger appeared to have changed his opinion. "I think the police are restraining themselves a little bit. This is just purely from what I've seen, there wasn't as much police violence as I expected there to be. There was actually more violence from protesters," he added.

The video clip, that is also a part of Guu's vlog, shows a man being beaten up by radical protesters in Hong Kong's Sha Tin Mall on September 22. Mobs assaulted the man brutally and continued thrashing him despite intervention from the paramedics.

The helpless man collapsed behind a billboard next to an escalator. A group of journalists tried to shield him from the attackers. The rioters, however, continued to attack the man, also throwing all kinds of trash on his head.

The paramedics eventually escorted the man away, but not before the mob stopped them from leaving the subway station with a rioter unleashing one last slap on the victim's face who was already bleeding profusely by then.

Guu deleted his first vlog before uploading a new one. He explained that he received a lot of hate after posting the first version that got nearly 3,000 dislikes on YouTube, while getting only 200 likes.

As the second version of the vlog became a huge hit, it triggered a wave of news about Guu on Hong Kong social media, with some accusing him of pretending to be a journalist.

"I did say it was a fake media pass, and I did that for a couple of reasons. Number one, I get more views. And number two, because I made it myself," Guu added. "I created a card with my real name, with what I actually do," he explained. "Everything on that card is real because I know that if I get arrested if I end up in jail," he added.

"It's my belief that it doesn't matter if 10 people look at your story or a million people look at your story, you're still capturing the truth, and you're still putting it out there for the public to see. So, I would say that, yeah, I'm a journalist. I don't work for any company. I just do it independently," the vlogger stated.

Despite Guu explaining why he chose to make a "fake press card," the "haters" on social media were still attacking him. The vlogger has been receiving ominous threats on social media.

"'We're gonna stab you in the throat!', 'We're gonna find you and we're gonna kill you!' I got comments like this, I got messages like this," Guu said.

"I didn't expect people would like to drop to that level... I am just some guy who came, took some pictures, and this is what I saw, and I put it online," he said, defending his actions.

As a citizen of a democratic country, the Canadian vlogger said that the rioters' behavior at the Hong Kong protests goes against the basic principles of "democracy" – ironically the cause the protesters cite as the reasons for their action.

"This is just purely from what I've seen... These guys say they are trying to fight for democracy, but they're trying to suppress everyone that speaks out against them. That is the opposite of democracy. That is the opposite of freedom of speech. That's the opposite of a free society," he remarked.

After all of this, the Canadian said he still wants to visit Hong Kong again, but "when things calm down a little bit, because right now people there are too crazy."

Guu has now left Hong Kong.