The woman who shot four people at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, California on Tuesday was angry at the company for throttling views of her videos and paying her less money.
She was identified by San Bruno Police as 39-year-old Nasim Aghdam. She posted videos online complaining about the company's policies.
The suspected shooter in today's YouTube incident has been identified. Please see press release for details – https://t.co/Xvr2l9bB9s pic.twitter.com/NEBoX3WWK5
— San Bruno Police (@SanBrunoPolice) April 4, 2018
Aghdam drove more than 500 miles from her home in San Diego to take violent action, the NYDN reports:
“She was always complaining that YouTube ruined her life,” Aghdam's brother, Shahran Aghdam told reporters at the family's Riverside County home.
YouTube Shooting Suspect Nasim Aghdam uploaded this video to her Facebook account – criticizing the company for age-restricting, filtering and demonetizing her videos. pic.twitter.com/3mwuFl5vnE
— Stefan Molyneux, MA (@StefanMolyneux) April 4, 2018
This is her website.
“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!”
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.”
…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's father said he tried to warn police about her anger toward the company:
The platform “stopped everything and now she has no income,” he told NBC news.
He also said she had been reported missing on Monday after not answering calls for two days. Police later found her sleeping in her car in Mountain View, 25km (15 miles) south of the YouTube offices in San Bruno and reported this to her family, but did not detain her.
Aghdam's father then warned police that she might go to YouTube as she “hated the company,” local media said.
The victims of the shooting were thought to be targeted randomly.
