Wednesday 4 April 2018 – Gun attack on YouTube HQ in San Bruno, California

YouTube’s HQ in San Bruno, California came under attack at lunchtime yesterday by a single shooter, a woman named Nasim Najafi Aghdam, who was 39 and of Iranian descent and whom it seems had developed a personal grudge against the video sharing website. She had recently railed against YouTube on her own website (NasimeSabz.com, which means “Green Breeze” in Persian) in which she writes content in Farsi, Turkish and English. She also has social media accounts on Instagram and Facebook. Aghdam had been using her online presence to accuse YouTube of filtering her videos so that they didn’t get seen and de-monetise her videos which stops them from earning revenue through advertising. She wrote on her website: “This video got age restricted after new close-minded youtube employees, got control of my farsi youtube channel last year 2016 & began filtering my videos to reduce views & suppress & discaurage [sic] me from making videos!” She was also upset at the lack of advert revenue from YouTube, writing: “My Revenue for 300,000 Views is $0.10?????” She also had a lot to say about Western governments: “BE AWARE! Dictatorship exists in all countries but with different tactics! They only care for personal short term profits & do anything to reach their goals even by fooling simple-minded people.” She also accused them of “hiding the truth, manipulating science & everything, putting public mental & physical health at risk.” She was also less than flattering about popular culture: “Popular culture is more vulgar, vapid, self-absorbed, hedonistic and dehumanising than at any other time in living memory … for the past few decades pop culture has only served as a sewer pipe of projectile diarrhoea aimed directly at our gawping mouths”.

In her attack yesterday she wounded three people before shooting herself dead. The victims are a man, aged 36, who is said to be in critical condition, and two women aged 32 and 27, their condition being reported as serious and fair respectively. One of the women, according to a nearby fast-food outlet employee, had suffered a gunshot to the leg. He said he applied a makeshift tourniquet and waited for emergency responders. The three wounded were taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. A fourth person sustained an ankle injury in a bid to escape the shooting.

Aghdam (above) has been described variously as a vegan bodybuilder, artist and rapper. Her YouTube videos covered a variety of topics, including animal cruelty, Persian culture, music parodies, workouts and veganism. All her online sites have now been deleted, with the exception of her personal website. That remains online, although links on the website to YouTube, Instagram and Facebook no longer work. Some of her videos survive elsewhere online through being shared or reposted by others. These include a video of her railing against YouTube which has survived online through it being shared on Twitter. Aghdam’s father said that his daughter hated YouTube and she herself had wrote: “There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube or any other video sharing site. Your channel will grow if they want [it] to.” Aghdam believed that YouTube was targeting her videos by reducing their accessibility and de-monetising them. This latter point has been a growing problem for many YouTube channels lately as YouTube have modified their policies on which channels are eligible for monetisation. They have imposed minimums requirements such as number of subscribers and views in order to qualify. This has become a huge problem for many independent media channels who heavily relied on money earned through adverts. Some of these sites have seen their YouTube revenue all but disappear. Although it is unclear whether Aghdam’s video were de-monetised by YouTube she clearly believed they had been and her father said that his daughter was angry because YouTube had stopped linking adverts to her videos.

Aghdam had also said that YouTube was filtering and relegating her videos in order to restrict their number of views. In January 2017 she said on her own website: “Videos of targeted users are filtered and merely regulated, so that people can hardly see their videos.” She also quoted Adolf Hitler: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” In February 2017, YouTube responded to a complaint by her by saying that her workout videos contained inappropriate material and had to be restricted from younger viewers. Aghdam responded to this on Facebook: “This is what they are doing to weekend activists and many other people who try to promote healthy, humane and smart living — people like me are not good for big business like for animal business, medicine business and for many other businesses. That’s why they are discriminating and censoring us.” Aghdam was also known to have attended anti-animal cruelty events. At one such event in 2009 she was quoted by the San Diego Union-Tribune as saying: “For me, animal rights equals human rights.”

Aghdam’s father had reported her missing on Monday after she had not answered his calls for two days. He even warned police that she might go to YouTube because she was angry with them. Police found her sleeping in her car in Mountain View, some 15 miles from San Bruno and over 450 miles from her home in San Diego. They spoke to her, even asking her about her family’s concerns over her attitude to YouTube and let her family know she was safe. However, they did not detain her. That was with hindsight clearly a missed opportunity, though I guess the police had no reason or legal justification to arrest her. Sleeping in your car is not a crime and railing against YouTube’s monetisation policies is hardly a reason to be arrested or even to raise suspicion that you are about to commit a crime. It seems that her father was not aware she had any weapons and phoned police again an hour after they informed him she was in Mountain View, reiterating her views of YouTube but not suggesting that she may resort to violence.

The Independent reported that Aghdam spent yesterday morning honing her shooting skills at gun range before, at around 12.30 PM local time(7.30 pm GMT) yesterday going to the YouTube HQ in San Bruno and opening fire with a handgun at an outdoor patio and dining area next to the building. The gun she used was a legally-owned 9mm Smith and Wesson semiautomatic handgun. Police arrived at 12:48 to find a “chaotic scene” with people fleeing the scene. Footage was broadcast by media showing people being led out of the building hands raised in the air – the normal procedure following a shooting – and a queue of people being searched by police. Such measures are taken to ensure that a gunman does not attempt to escape by mingling with the victims or bystanders. Police said they “encountered one victim with an apparent gunshot wound at the site and two additional gunshot victims had fled to a neighbouring business.” Police found the body of Aghdam inside the building, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot. Police said: “At this time there is no evidence that the shooter knew the victims of this shooting or that individuals were specifically targeted.” The fact that the shooter was a woman is unusual. According to the FBI, in 160 incidents between 2000-2013, only six people who opened fire were women. According to other sources, including The Washington Post and the New York Police Department, around 4% of mass shooters in the US are women. This shooting, however, under some criteria for defining mass shootings, doesn’t even qualify as a mass shooting. In the US it is generally accepted that a mass shooting is one where four or more people, excluding the shooter/s, are shot.

Why fewer women carry out mass shootings are varied. Jaclyn Schildkraut, a professor and expert on gun violence in the United States, told The Washington Post: “Women are more likely to commit intimate homicide, killing their spouses or killing their children and less likely to kill strangers than men to begin with. Then you factor in weapon selection: Men are more likely to use guns, women are more likely to use poison and suffocation, much more personal types of methodologies.” She suggested that those women who do commit mass shootings are more likely to do so at a school rather than a workplace: “It has to do with access to victims and knowing their routines.” She also suggested that female mass shooters are often described as “crazy or depressed,” where in reality they are typically not “drastically different in motivation than the other workplace shooters.” The Washington Post also pointed out that it is not just mass shootings were men outnumber women drastically. “Three times as many women as men die as a result of intimate partner violence, the majority of which involve guns. Men also commit — and die of — homicide and suicide by gun at higher rates than their female counterparts.”

This difference in level of violence between men and women, as some argue, is also a consequence of the fact that men are less likely to seek help for depression or mental health issues than women are and can be an issue of toxic masculinity deeply woven into society. Two leading experts on the topic wrote in a book: “Not only do traditional notions of masculinity prevent men from seeking counseling or other forms of help they need, help which may prevent these mass shootings, but violence is also inculcated as a more masculine alternative than help seeking.”

Tech-savy YouTube employees were naturally quick to take to Twitter to record the events and the aftermath, whether accurately or not is debatable. Todd Sherman Tweeted: “We were sitting in a meeting and then we heard people running because it was rumbling the floor. First thought was earthquake.” Vadim Lavrusik Tweeted: “Active shooter at YouTube HQ. Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers.” Dan Afergan Tweeted: “Active shooter at @YouTube. Becky and I are safe,” while Jonathan Willing Tweeted: “Active shooter at YouTube HQ. Most of us are in lockdown or have been evacuated. We don’t know much right now.” Indeed Todd Sherman and Vadim Lavrusik were on Twitter throughout the shooting with a live report of the shooting from their perspectives.

Todd Sherman’s tweets: “We are sitting in a meeting and then we heard people running because it was rumbling the floor. First thought was earthquake.” / “After exiting the room we didn’t know what was going on but more people were running. Seemed serious and not like a drill.” / “At that point every new person I saw was a potential shooter. Someone else said that the person shot out the back doors and then shot themselves.” / “Police cruisers pull up, hopped out with rifles ready and I told them where the situation was as I headed down the street to meet up with a couple team members.” / “In an Uber omw home. Hope everyone is safe.”

Vadim Lavrusik’s tweets: “Active shooter at YouTube HQ. Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers.” / “Safe. Got evacuated it. Outside now.” / “If you’re a friend in news, I know you are doing your job and appreciate you reaching out to check if I’m okay but the last thing I want is to do an interview right now. We are all shakin up.”

Those tweeting the shooting were posting images and images of police responding and evacuating employees. It is always questionable for people to be tweeting or posting on Facebook or elsewhere during a shooting. Clearly these people want to let their family and friends know they are safe and alert the police, but beyond that there is little to be achieved by tweeting during a shooting. It always amazes me that when there is an incident where people are in danger or are unsure whether they are in danger they still seem to feel the need to share what is happening. As Mr Lavrusik said in one of his tweets, it also encourages media outlets to try and contact those posting updates during an attack, which could place them at risk if an active shooter hears their phone. I would have thought that if you’re barricaded in a room, hoping that a shooter passes you by, the last thing you need to be doing is using your phone. The best thing you can do is remain in place, remain silent and switch your phone off so as not to draw attention. I guess this is too much to ask in this day and age, especially with tech-obsessed people as I’m guessing most YouTube employees are.

YouTube’s spokesman Chris Dale issued a statement in which he said: “Today it feels like the entire community of YouTube and all of the employees were victims of this crime. Our hearts go out to those who suffered in this particular attack.” YouTube is owned by Google, and 1,700 people are employed at their San Bruno HQ making it the area’s largest employer. Twitter issued a post saying that it was monitoring misinformation on the site: “We are also aware of attempts by some people to deceive others with misinformation around this tragedy. We are tracking this and are taking action on anything that violates our rules.”

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, said on Twitter: “I know you are in shock right now. Over the coming days, we will continue to provide support to help everyone in our Google family heal from this unimaginable tragedy.” Thomas D. Cook, CEO of Apple, wrote on Twitter: “From everyone at Apple, we send our sympathy and support to the team at YouTube and Google, especially the victims and their families”. Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey wrote on Twitter: “I can’t imagine what our friends at YouTube are feeling and dealing with right now. We’re here for you and your families and friends.”

President Donald Trump also took to Twitter later yesterday evening with his reaction: “Was just briefed on the shooting at YouTube’s HQ in San Bruno, California. Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved. Thank you to our phenomenal Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders that are currently on the scene.”

The victims and others campaigning for gun control after the Parklands shooting in February Tweeted their support: “Our hearts are with you, @YouTube. I write this without knowing the scope of the situation that is currently happening at YouTube HQ. No one should have to fear for their lives in our free nation. No one should have to send a last ‘I love you’ text before returning to their hiding spot while an active shooter terrorizes their community. March For Our Lives stands with YouTube as they stood with us incredibly early on in our mission to stop this. We need to stop this.”

One disturbing element of the coverage of the shooting was the proliferation and speed with which lies and misinformation spread on social media. Examples of this included images of purported shooter included women wearing headscarves. Despite no evidence of the shooter’s religion or ethnicity the anti-Muslim website Jihad Watch used the word “headscarf” in an attempt to suggest the shooter was a Muslim and that this was a “jihad attack.” An ABC affiliate channel also suggested the shooter was wearing a headscarf. The suggestion that the shooter was a Muslim was also supported by the far right-wing Gateway Pundit blog.

The internet has an uncanny ability to spread bizarre myths. One that frequently crops up after mass shootings in the United States is that comedian Sam Hyde was the shooter. Hyde, who co-created the comedy group Million Dollar Extreme, is often blamed by trolls for shootings. This bizarre targeting of Mr Hyde was again in evidence after yesterday’s shooting with the online forum 4chan encouraging others to “start memeing Sam Hyde” in an attempt to get the hoax on television.

Another common reaction to disasters and shootings in the United States is to claim they are false-flags or “staged” events. Again, particularly on Facebook, idiots were claiming that the YouTube HQ shooting was just such a “government false flag operation.” If the trolls and morons online aren’t blaming the government they were claiming falsely that well-known YouTubers were behind the shooting, including in this case the German YouTuber DragonLord and Brittany Venti, a video creator on YouTube who reported that several tweets had blamed her for the shooting. Users on Reddit also claimed it was a false-flag or anti-gun staged event, with some even pointing out that the shooter bore a resemblance to Linda Sarsour, a leading member of the Women’s March who is a Muslim woman and wears a headscarf. Comparing the photos below don’t suggest an obvious likeness which suggests that those suggesting a likeness are again trying to focus on the Muslim and headscarf angles. A photo search for Aghdam produces no photos of her wearing a headscarf.