UKIP Scotland admit they fell for a 'quite funny' prank on Periscope
- Published
Scotland's UKIP leader has told Newsbeat he found his pranking on social media "funny".
It happened when David Coburn decided to speak directly to potential voters through Periscope.
That was after he says he wasn't invited to take part in a party leaders' TV political debate ahead of Scottish elections.
But users following him decided to prank him by telling him they couldn't hear.
David Coburn says he knew he risked the attention when he decided to launch Periscope - so here's what happened.
First of all, there were genuine sound problems.
And when they were sorted, some bright spark decided to get people to pretend they still couldn't hear.
He noticed the messages and apologised for "technical hitches".
He said: "I'm not sure if our broadband's not big enough, or something's not big enough.
"We're going to get this perfected, don't worry."
Cue lots of sighing, callings for assistants and staring blankly off-screen.
Luckily some viewers had helpful suggestions...
Someone else told him to speak louder. So he did.
He blamed "gremlins" for the problems.
He insisted: "We're trying to get this to work, it's new technology. The geeks are at it."
Coburn told Newsbeat: "It was quite a funny prank really.
"It's never a bad thing for the public to see that their politicians are actually human and can fall victim to pranks."
He pointed out that people would have heard him perfectly if he'd been invited onto the actual Holyrood election debate.
Coburn says he's glad he did it.
The debate featured First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, Patrick Harvie from the Greens and the Lib Dems' Willie Rennie.
The election is happening in May.
Find us on Instagram at and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat