YouTube suspends Russell Brand amid sexual assault allegations
Russell Brand leaves the Troubabour Wembley Park theater in northwest London after performing a comedy set on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023. (James Manning/PA via AP)
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(The Hill) – YouTube announced it has suspended actor and comedian Russell Brand from its platform after several women made allegations of sexual assaults against the creator.
The suspension means that Brand cannot earn any revenue from ads that run within and alongside his YouTube videos.
Brand, whose main YouTube channel has 6.6 million subscribers, has other side channels on the social media platform, including “Awakening With Russell” — which has 426,000 subscribers — and “Stay Free With Russell Brand,” with 22,200 subscribers.
“This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand,” YouTube said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
“We have suspended [monetization] on Russell Brand’s channel for violating our Creator Responsibility policy,” YouTube said in a statement to The Hill. “If a creator’s off-platform behavior harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community.”
“This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand,” the company added.
YouTube follows a list of organizations distancing themselves from Brand, including the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), which also removed content from the comedian from its streaming services.
This comes as British politicians have called on local authorities to launch an investigation into the allegations against the comedian. A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the allegations should be “treated seriously and treated with sensitivity.”
“We have to be particularly careful when we listen to the voices of the people who are relatively powerless,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told the BBC. “Because we, I think, collectively have missed opportunities to do the right thing and intervene much, much earlier.”
Brand, 48, has publicly denied the allegations made by four women in a Channel 4 television documentary, and in the The Times and the Sunday Times newspapers. He has maintained that all of his relationships were “always consensual.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
