YouTube shooter who was 'angry over video postings' named as vegan activist Nasim Aghdam

Nasim Aghdam injured three people at the San Francisco office before killing herself.

2 min read

04 April, 2018

Nasim Aghdam's family said she hated YouTube [Nasime Sabz]

The suspect in a gun attack at YouTube's HQ in California, that left three people injured, had expressed anger over the treatment of her video postings, according to media reports.

Nasim Aghdam, 39, believed she was being suppressed by YouTube and told her family members she "hated" the company.

Tuesday's attack left a man and two women injured with gunshot wounds. Aghdam shot herself dead.

Investigators do not believe Aghdam specifically targeted the three victims when she pulled out a handgun and fired off several rounds in a courtyard at the company's headquarters south of San Francisco on Tuesday, police said.

Aghdam, who went by the name of "Nasime Sabz" online, referred to YouTube as a “dictatorship” and claimed that the video hosting website was filtering her content.

Her online profile shows she was a vegan activist who ran a website called NasimeSabz.com, meaning “Green Breeze” in Persian, where she posted about Persian culture and veganism, as well as long passages critical of YouTube.

Her website decried YouTube's policies and said the company was trying to "suppress" content creators.

"YouTube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!" one of the messages on the site said. "There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!"

Aghdam "hated" YouTube and was angry that the company stopped paying her for videos she posted on the platform, her father, Ismail Aghdam, told the Bay Area News Group.

On Monday, he called police to report his daughter missing after she didn't answer the phone for two days and warned officers that she might go to YouTube, he said.

Officers in Mountain View, about 30 miles from YouTube's headquarters, found her sleeping in her car in a parking lot around 2:00 am on Tuesday but let her go after she refused to answer their questions. Aghdam didn't appear to be a threat to herself or others, police spokeswoman Katie Nelson said.

Nelson would not say whether officers had been warned that Aghdam might have been headed to YouTube headquarters.

Earlier on Tuesday, law enforcement said the shooting was being investigated as a domestic dispute but did not elaborate. It was not immediately clear why police later said the people shot were not specifically targeted.

"Today it feels like the entire community of YouTube, all of the employees, were victims of this crime," said Chris Dale, a spokesman for YouTube.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said in a tweet the company would "come together to heal as a family."