Vegan shot 3 at YouTube HQ over site ‘censoring’ her videos
A VEGAN animal rights activist who shot staff at YouTube’s US headquarters was seeking revenge for the internet giant’s alleged censoring of her videos, it was claimed last night.
Nasim Aghdam, 39, an Iranian-American, shot and wounded three people, one of them critically, before killing herself.
Her family said they had warned police when they found her sleeping in her car near YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, California, that she might be planning to attack the company she blamed for ruining her.
Armed with a 9mm handgun, Aghdam opened fire at staff having lunch in a courtyard on Tuesday. Her victims included a 36-year-old man who is in a critical condition, a 32-year-old woman who was seriously injured and a 37-year-old woman who is in a ‘fair’ condition.
Aghdam turned the gun on herself as police arrived.
The fact that Aghdam was able to enter YouTube’s low-security campus sent shockwaves around Silicon Valley, stoking fears that it could encourage further violence from those with a grudge against the powerful technology industry.
Aghdam claimed she had made a living from the advertising revenue attached to posting videos and messages on social media, particularly YouTube. Her performances, from fitness exercises which ranged to diatribes about animal cruelty, had attracted thousands of viewers.
In one, she wore a sheep mask in front of a picture of a cow before the words, ‘Go Vegan, Go Healthy & Humane’ flashed across the screen.
However, in recent months she started complaining that YouTube had been censoring her because of her beliefs.
She accused its ‘closed-minded’ staff of purposefully limiting the number of people who viewed her videos and consequently how much money she made from them. Her father Ismail, who lives in southern California, said she ‘hated’ the website. Her brother Sharan said: ‘She was always complaining that YouTube ruined her life.’ Aghdam’s family alerted police when she went missing from her home in San Diego on Monday and drove 800km to San Bruno, south of San Francisco.
When police found her sleeping in her car early on Tuesday, her brother said he made the connection with the nearby YouTube HQ and warned them that it was probably her destination. He added: ‘They didn’t do anything and she got killed.’
Police insisted they hadn’t perceived Aghdam as a threat when they found her in her car.
Aghdam’s personal website included graphic photographs of slaughtered animals and pleas not to wear fur jackets or have sex outside marriage. She also complained of discrimination by YouTube and its owner, Google. She said YouTube had ‘filtered my channels’ from 2016, causing the number of views on her videos to fall. Aghdam posted a screenshot showing that one video had received 366,591 views. She said she would receive just 10 cents in advertising In February, revenue she went from on it. Facebook to criticise YouTube for restricting one of her workout videos to older audiences. ‘We are learning that Ms Aghdam had a problem with the policies or practices that YouTube had employed,’ said San Bruno police chief Ed Barberini.
‘She was always complaining’