https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...-YouTube-policies-12803675.php#photo-15335994
Disgruntled video-maker who expressed anger at YouTube policies ID’d as shooter
By Dominic Fracassa, Annie Ma and
Kevin Fagan
Updated 9:19 pm, Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Photo: Via Instagram
Image 6 of 98
Law enforcement sources have confirmed Nasim Aghdam of Southern California as the woman suspected of opening fire at YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno Tuesday, April 3, 2018.
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The woman suspected of opening fire at YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno Tuesday was a disgruntled video-maker, Nasim Aghdam of Southern California, law enforcement sources told The Chronicle.
On a
website consisting of a collage of photos and video posts, Aghdam rails against YouTube for taking down some of her videos and for skimping on revenue driven by the traffic to her YouTube page.
“There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!” Aghdam wrote. “Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!”
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On Tuesday evening, her YouTube videos were taken down, apparently by the company.
Aghdam’s posted videos covered a mix of topics, from vegan cooking to workouts to parodies of music videos.
A message on her YouTube pages said that the profiles were taken down due to “multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy against spam, deceptive practices, and misleading content or other Term of Service violations.”
The company declined to answer questions about Aghdam and her deleted accounts on Tuesday night, and referred questions to an earlier statement on the shooting issued by Google CEO Sundar Pinchai.
On an Instagram post dated March 18, Aghdam claimed YouTube was using its tools to “censor and suppress people who speak the truth and are not good for the financial, political gains of the system and big businesses.”
Aghdam was
quoted in a 2009 story in the San Diego Union-Tribune about a protest by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against the use of pigs in military trauma training. She dressed in a wig and jeans with large drops of painted “blood” on them, holding a plastic sword at the demonstration outside the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base.
“For me, animal rights equal human rights,” Aghdam told the Union-Tribune at the time.
Police say the shooter opened fire with a handgun at the YouTube headquarters just before 1 p.m. Tuesday and wounded three people before fatally shooting herself. A fourth person also suffered a injury to their ankle while fleeing.
Aghdam appears to have kept up an active presence online, including on YouTube, where she posted several videos, mostly about animal rights, some of which appear to be graphic, including one of a dog being boiled alive. Other videos extol the virtues of a vegan diet and feature Aghdam performing exercise routines.
Dominic Fracassa, Annie Ma and Kevin Fagan are
San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: dfracassa
@sfchronicle.com, [email protected] and [email protected]
