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Woman Accused of Shooting 3 at YouTube Had Complained About Company YouTube Policies Led Woman to Target Its Offices in Shooting, Police Say
(about 3 hours later)
The woman identified by the police as the person who shot three people at YouTube’s headquarters in California on Tuesday before killing herself had long accused the video site and its owner of discrimination. • Investigators on Wednesday said they believed YouTube’s policies had motivated a woman who shot three people at YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, Calif., before killing herself.
The San Bruno Police Department said that the attacker, Nasim Najafi Aghdam, who was in her late 30s and had lived in Southern California, opened fire with a handgun in a courtyard at YouTube’s offices in San Bruno. While the police have not provided a possible motive, Ms. Aghdam had alleged that YouTube and Google, which owns it, took measures to hurt her website in search results and reduce the number of views on her videos. • The attacker, identified as Nasim Najafi Aghdam, was 39 and had lived in Southern California, the police said.
On Wednesday morning, the police were still trying to piece together Ms. Aghdam’s activity in the days leading up to the shooting. Her family reported her missing on March 31 in San Diego, the San Bruno Police Department said, and she was located by another police department on Tuesday morning, before the shooting, about 30 miles south of YouTube’s headquarters. • Ms. Aghdam often discussed Persian culture, veganism and animal cruelty, performed music parodies and gave exercise tutorials on YouTube and on her personal website.
She also told her family in recent weeks that she “hated” YouTube because it was censoring her videos and paying her less. “She was angry,” her father, Ismail Aghdam, who lives outside Los Angeles in Riverside County, told the Bay Area News Group. On Wednesday morning, the police were still piecing together Ms. Aghdam’s activity in the days before the shooting. Her family reported her missing on March 31 in San Diego, the San Bruno Police Department said, and she was located by another police department on Tuesday morning, before the shooting, about 30 miles south of YouTube’s headquarters.
She had told her family in recent weeks that she “hated” YouTube because it was censoring her videos and paying her less. “She was angry,” her father, Ismail Aghdam, who lives outside Los Angeles in Riverside County, told the Bay Area News Group.
“When searching for my website in google, at top of link they add ‘an error occurred’ but there is no error!” a website under her name, NasimeSabz.com, said in February 2016. “They add it to keep you from my visiting my site.”“When searching for my website in google, at top of link they add ‘an error occurred’ but there is no error!” a website under her name, NasimeSabz.com, said in February 2016. “They add it to keep you from my visiting my site.”
On the website and in YouTube videos, Ms. Aghdam discussed Persian culture, veganism and animal cruelty, performed music parodies and gave exercise tutorials. She had YouTube pages in Persian, Turkish and English. Ms. Aghdam’s personal website included graphic photos of slaughtered animals and pleas not to wear fur jackets or have sex outside of marriage. More recently, she focused on what she perceived as discrimination by YouTube and Google. Ms. Aghdam had YouTube pages in Persian, Turkish and English.
Her personal website included graphic photos of slaughtered animals and pleas not to wear fur jackets or have sex outside of marriage. But more recently, she focused on what she perceived as discrimination by YouTube and Google.
She complained on her website that “new close-minded youtube employees” had “filtered my channels” starting in 2016, causing the number of views on her videos to decrease. She posted a screenshot of her YouTube page showing that one video had received 366,591 views but that she would receive an estimated $0.10 in advertising revenue from it.
“My revenue for 300,000 is $0.10?????” she wrote.
In February 2017, she criticized YouTube in a video on Facebook for restricting one of her workout videos to older audiences. “This is what they are doing to weekend activists and many other people who try to promote healthy, humane and smart living — people like me are not good for big business, like for animal business, medicine business and for many other businesses. That’s why they are discriminating and censoring us,” she said in the video.In February 2017, she criticized YouTube in a video on Facebook for restricting one of her workout videos to older audiences. “This is what they are doing to weekend activists and many other people who try to promote healthy, humane and smart living — people like me are not good for big business, like for animal business, medicine business and for many other businesses. That’s why they are discriminating and censoring us,” she said in the video.
By Tuesday night, YouTube, as well as Instagram and Facebook, had taken down her pages and videos. Ed Barberini, the chief of the San Bruno Police Department, said Wednesday that investigators were aware of Ms. Aghdam’s criticism of YouTube and Google. By Tuesday night, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook had all taken down her pages and videos. Ed Barberini, San Bruno’s police chief, said on Wednesday that investigators were aware of Ms. Aghdam’s criticism of YouTube and Google.
“We are learning that Ms. Aghdam had a problem with the policies or practices that YouTube had employed,” Chief Barberini said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Obviously, she was upset.”“We are learning that Ms. Aghdam had a problem with the policies or practices that YouTube had employed,” Chief Barberini said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Obviously, she was upset.”
While Ms. Aghdam appeared to have a long-running grudge against the company, the Police Department said that it did not appear that she knew any of the three shooting victims. Active shooter incidents in the United States are increasingly common, but shootings by women are quite rare.
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital received a man, 36, in critical condition; a woman, 32, in serious condition; and a woman, 27, in fair condition, a hospital spokesman, Brent Andrew, said at a news conference on Tuesday. A 2014 F.B.I. study of 160 active shooter incidents found that just six involved a female shooter. Female shooters were involved in three other incidents from 2014 to 2016, according to the bureau. The bureau defined such incidents as “an individual engaging in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area,” and distinguished the events from murders or mass killings.
A fourth person had injuries that weren’t from a gunshot, the police said. They scheduled the next news conference for Wednesday morning. Mass shootings are often regarded as incidents where at least four people are killed.
The most recent mass casualty event involving a female shooter was the 2015 attack in San Bernardino, Calif., when Tashfeen Malik and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook attacked his co-workers during a holiday party. Fourteen people were killed, and many more were wounded.
In 2010, a female shooter who had been fired from her job at a Publix Supermarket in Florida returned to the store. In another instance the same year, a woman shot at co-workers after she had been suspended from her position at Kraft Foods in Philadelphia. Both women had handguns.
Although Ms. Aghdam appeared to have a long-running grudge against YouTube, the police said that it did not appear that she knew any of the three shooting victims.
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital received a man, 36, in critical condition; a woman, 32, in serious condition; and a woman, 27, in fair condition, a hospital spokesman, Brent Andrew, said at a news conference on Tuesday. A fourth person had injuries that were not from a gunshot, the police said.