Hate preacher ‘rakes in £20k from Google’ for web videos
‘Allah will forgive him all his sins’
A HATE preacher suspected of radicalising a Paris terrorist has made around £20,000 posting videos on YouTube.
Tarik Chadlioui, 43 earned around £200 a month from the Google- owned site by posting preaching videos – including one from a children’s playground.
It was believed to have been filmed in Birmingham, where he has lived with his wife and children for the last two years. The father of eight was arrested in the city on Wednesday at the request of Spanish police.
He is accused of recruiting a jihadi network with tentacles across Europe through his YouTube channel and other social media and is now facing extradition to Spain.
As recently as June 11 this year, Chadlioui said in one YouTube video that Muslims should take up ‘armed punishments in the secular lands’. In another clip posted in April 2010 he said: ‘He who dies in jihad, Allah will forgive him all his sins.’
In the video filmed in the park, he discusses the correct way to pray, adding: ‘Do not forget to pay for your subscription for religious speeches.’
Now it has emerged that he has been paid per view for the videos which have amassed some 13million hits and 16,700 subscribers.
An analysis of advertising spending by Influencer Marketing Hub showed that Chadlioui could be making an average of £16 per video, reaping around £ 20,640 since he joined YouTube in 2007.
Last night, the Daily Mail found that major brands such as Netflix and Pregnacare vitamins were inadvertently funding his hate.
Commercials for the firms ran before videos on Chadlioui’s YouTube channel. People who publish videos on YouTube get a cut of the money from any advertising on their posts – meaning that all of these advertisers were funnelling money to the known hate preacher.
Google makes the vast majority of its £72.6billion-a-year revenues from adverts, which it places using complex computer technology.
Last night, Vitabiotics – the pharmaceutical company behind Pregnacare – said it was ‘shocked’ to find its adverts on Chadlioui’s channel and immediately pulled all of its advertising from YouTube.
The radical Muslim imam, who came to Britain on a Belgian passport, is facing extradition to Spain to face terror charges relating to his production of ‘audio visual material for the recruitment of jihadis on his YouTube channel’.
He is also suspected of inspiring Omar Mostefai, a suicide bomber who detonated an explosive device at the Bataclan theatre siege that claimed 89 lives in Paris in 2015.
Chadlioui has been linked to several European Islamist groups. However last night it emerged that the British security services did not see him as a direct threat. A source said he would have been a ‘higher priority’ if he was thought to be active in attack planning.
A spokesman for YouTube said: ‘We’ve been conducting an extensive review of our advertising policies – and have made significant changes. We believe these steps will further safeguard our advertisers’ brands and we will continue to improve our controls over time.’ Insiders refused to confirm how much money Chadlioui made through the site.
A spokesman for Netflix said that while the video firm ‘employs numerous filters’ in placing its adverts, there are ‘ a small number’ of instances where it does not work.