YouTube HQ shooter was angry because her videos were demonised

Nasim Aghdam, the 39-year-old transgender woman who opened fire at the suburban Northern California campus of Google’s YouTube, wounding three victims before killing herself was “angry” with the organisation after it demonied and removed her content from the video-sharing website, authorities say.

The late shooter who described herself on her website as a Persian animal rights activist and vegan athlete, opened fire with a handgun at YouTube HQ on Tuesday just before 1pm, Pacific Time.

She had been reported missing by her family earlier that day.

Read also: Tech firms under pressure by civil liberties group to take ‘security pledge’

Following the shooting, Nasim was reported as in critical condition, while a 32-year-old woman was in serious condition and a 27-year-old woman was in fair condition according to reports.

The three victims are still hospitalised, while a fourth victim was also taken to the hospital with injuries.

After opening fire at the suburban Northern California campus of Google’s YouTube sending panicked employees fleeing from their offices, the shooter was later found dead after shooting herself at the scene of the Google-owned video sharing service.

According to Aghdam’s family, she was “angry” that YouTube had stopped paying her for online videos and had taken down her material.

On her website, Aghdam wrote: “Videos of targeted users are filtered and merely relegated, so that people can hardly see their videos.”

“There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube or any other video-sharing site. Your channel will grow if they want [it] to!”

 

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