YouTube Headquarters Shooting Sparks Conversation

Nasim Najafi Aghdam drove from San Diego, California to Mountain View, California, a city more than 700 miles away, in a rage quest to shoot up the YouTube headquarters building. Three people were shot before she turned the gun on herself. The 38-year-old YouTuber stopped answering her phone and disappeared after expressing her issues with the company. Her brother tracked her phone and found she was headed to Mountain View – very close to the Youtube Headquarters.

Aghdam had her own YouTube channel, including videos about workouts, vegan recipes, and animal rights activism. She claimed that the views on her videos were going down because YouTube was censoring her channel.

“There is no free speech in real world and you will be suppressed for telling the truth that is not supported by the system,” Nasim Najafi Aghdam said on her website. “There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube or any other video sharing site. Your channel will grow if they want to!”

Authorities initially thought it was a domestic incident, meaning she was targeting a specific person, but police later said there is no evidence that she knew any of the victims.

“Aghdam’s father said that she had grown angry after YouTube reduced her ability to earn ad revenues from her videos,” Josh Horwitz said in a Quartz Media article. “Many of her videos reportedly showed her complaining about what she believed was censorship on YouTube, and she alleged on her website that the video platform was targeting her unfairly.”

Three people were shot including a 36-year-old man who is in critical condition, a 32-year-old woman in serious condition, and a 27-year-old woman in fair condition. The police released a report stating that four people were injured – one was hurt while fleeing but was not shot. Aghdam was found later on in the building having died from a self inflicted gunshot wound.