Reports are surfacing regarding the alleged motivation behind yesterday’s YouTube shooting, with it being suggested that shooter Nasim Aghdam infiltrated the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno with a firearm after publishing a manifesto that targeted the site for the censorship and demonetization of her videos. Aghdam wounded three YouTube employees during the shooting, before killing herself.
According to reports surfacing following the shooting, Aghdam had been complaining to friends and family about how the site had demonetized her videos prior to the shooting. Her YouTube channel was reportedly affected by the “Adpocalypse,” a mass advertiser boycott that was suffered by YouTube last year after brands grew increasingly concerned over the site housing “derogatory content,” such as hate speech or violent videos. A CBS Los Angeles report stated that Aghdam’s father had called the police out of fear of her anger at the company, with her posting videos on her channel referring to videomakers as YouTube’s “slaves.”
“They want you to be their slaves and not think outside the box they designed for you,” she said in one video. “Your knowledge is their enemy!”
On her website NasimeSabz.com, she had also made several posts ranting about YouTube, accusing the site of discrimination and not fairly distributing revenue between its creators.
There is no free speech in real world and you will be suppressed for telling the truth that is not supported by the system,” she wrote. “There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube or any other video sharing site.”
Her website also contains a variety of screenshots intended to show how YouTube had been “filtering” her videos to “keep them from getting views,” along with stating that the site was “turning people into programmed robots.” The 39-year-old Southern California resident had also included a quote from Adolf Hitler on her site: “Make the lie big, Make it simple, Keep saying it, And eventually they will believe it.”
Nasim had also included a variety of embedded videos on her site featuring more prominent YouTubers discussing the “Adpocalypse,” including the hugely popular videomaker Casey Neistat, alongside a video of InfoWars editor Paul Joseph Watson criticizing modern popular culture as “vapid, self-absorbed, hedonistic and dehumanizing.”
According to ABC7 News, Aghdam was not carrying an ID badge and no one in the facility knew who she was. YouTube has terminated her account since the shooting, while her Facebook and Instagram profiles have also been removed.
Featured Image Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
