YouTube blocked comedian Russell Brand from earning money from advertising on his videos after several women accused him of sexual assault, the company announced on Tuesday.
Five women have accused Brand of sexual assault, rape and emotional abuse, but the popular podcaster vehemently denies the “very serious allegations.” Brand has over 6.6 million subscribers on YouTube and the platform demonetized him for breaking its “creator responsibility policy,” it told the Daily Caller News Foundation. (RELATED: RFK Jr. Floats Idea For Government-Owned Social Media Site That Would Be ‘Free Of Censorship’)
This is happening pic.twitter.com/N8zIKLbJN2
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) September 15, 2023
“If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community,” a YouTube spokesman told the DCNF.
The women alleged that Brand sexually assaulted them between 2006 and 2013, according to a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Dispatches.
“Amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” Brand stated in a video post before they published the investigation.
“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies,” Brand said in the video. “As I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very very promiscuous. Now during that time of promiscuity the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual.”
Brand also suggested the accusation could be a “coordinated media attack” on him.
YouTube previously censored one of Russell Brand’s videos due to “misinformation” and he accused the platform of hypocrisy in its enforcement.
Brand did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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