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Artist pronounces Momo dead following viral hoax
After news broke about the so-called Momo Challenge, Japanese artist Keisuke Aiso has destroyed his sculpture, which was supposedly featured in the challenge.
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After news broke about the so-called Momo Challenge, Japanese artist Keisuke Aiso has destroyed his sculpture, which was supposedly featured in the challenge. (Shutterstock/fotogestoeber)
J
apanese artist Keisuke Aiso has destroyed his artistic creation following news reports about the “Momo Challenge”, an alleged challenge in social media encouraging children to harm themselves.
The challenge supposedly features the sculpture, which appears to have a human head with long dark hair, huge eyes, an oversized mouth and a flattened nose.
YouTube recently said that it had no evidence of videos promoting the challenge.
We want to clear something up regarding the Momo Challenge: We’ve seen no recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube. Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies.
— YouTube (@YouTube) February 27, 2019
Though Aiso was not involved in the challenge, he reassured children that Momo was dead.
According to CNET, the artist did not respond to requests for a comment, but told The Sun that Momo did not exist anymore.
Read also: #FallingStars2018: Stars are – literally – falling for social media
The creation was named “Mother Bird” as it had the feet of a bird but without much of a torso. Built in 2016, it was displayed at the Vanilla Gallery in Tokyo.
According to the artist, the sculpture was intended to be scary but not to hurt anyone. He said that he was inspired by Japanese legend of Ubume, “a woman who dies in childbirth and returns in changed form to haunt the living”.
Vox said that the Momo Challenge reportedly was shared on WhatsApp and lured young children into violence or suicide, along with images of Mother Bird and harmful messages.
Several news outlets and the UK Safer Internet Centre have claimed that the challenge is a hoax. (sop/wng)
