YouTube has demonetized Russell Brand’s channel, and the BBC pulled some of his shows from its online streaming service, after several women accused the comedian-turned-wellness personality of rape and sexual assault in an investigative report published over the weekend.
In a statement on Tuesday, YouTube said they took action against Brand’s account – which has 6.6 million subscribers – to “protect” users in light of “serious allegations against the creator.” It means 48-year-old Brand will no longer be able to profit from the ads that run within and alongside his videos, which have titles like “What REALLY Started the Hawaii Fires?” and “Covid Tsar Admits Lockdowns Were NEVER About Science.”
Russell Brand leaves the Troubadour Wembley Park theater in London after performing a comedy set on Saturday. James Manning/PA via AP
Other channels associated with his main YouTube page also include Awakening With Russell, which has 426,000 subscribers, Football Is Nice, which has some 20,000 subscribers, and Stay Free With Russell Brand, which has 22,200 subscribers.
“This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand,” the Google-owned video service said.
While Brand has not been charged with any crimes, YouTube said he violated its “creator responsibility policy.”
“If a creator’s off-platform behavior harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community,” the statement read.
BBC echoed the sentiment, saying Brand’s content “now falls below public expectations” of iPlayer and BBC Sounds.
Over the weekend, the Times of London, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches published a joint investigation in which several women accused Brand of sexual assault and rape between 2006 and 2013 – a period during which Brand also became married to and subsequently divorced from pop star Katy Perry.
One of the women said she was just 16 when she and the comedian – in his 30s at the time – began an “emotionally and sexually abusive” three-month relationship. Another said he raped her in his Los Angeles home in 2012, while a third women claimed he forced himself on her the following year in his residence in West Hollywood.
Brand has vehemently denied all the allegations, acknowledging that while he was had a “promiscuous” past, all his encounters have been consensual.
“I was always transparent about [being promiscuous] then – almost too transparent. And I’m being transparent about it now,” Brand added. “To see that transparency metastasized into something criminal, that I absolutely deny.”
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