What we know so far about YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam

CTV National News: Disturbing digital past Questions remain after the attack at YouTube headquarters by a shooter with a vendetta against the platform. John Vennavally-Rao reports.

She was a vocal defender of animal rights, promoted veganism and healthy exercise, and railed against YouTube for its censorship policies.

Nasim Aghdam, the woman accused of shooting and wounding three people at YouTube’s headquarters in California before killing herself, left behind a considerable online presence that may offer valuable clues to investigators.

Here’s what we know about the accused shooter so far.

Police say the 39-year-old woman from San Diego, Calif. used a handgun to open fire in a courtyard at the YouTube campus located in San Bruno, Calif., just south of San Francisco, on Tuesday afternoon. Officers found Aghdam dead inside the complex from a gunshot wound that police believe was self-inflicted.

During a press conference on Wednesday, police said they had no evidence to suggest Aghdam specifically targeted any of the victims.

Aghdam’s family members, however, told U.S. media outlets that she “hated” YouTube and that she was upset with the company for censoring her videos and no longer paying her for them.

Her father told the Bay Area News Group that he called police to report her as missing after she failed to return any calls for two days. Aghdam’s brother told CNN affiliate KGTV that he was worried she might do something dangerous and called police to warn them.

Nasime Sabz

A woman using the name Nasime Sabz online, who appears to be Aghdam, operated at least four different YouTube channels in English, Farsi, and Turkish as well as a personal website.

The YouTube channels include videos on a wide range of topics such as, animal cruelty, veganism, workout instructions and hand art. The channels appear to have had thousands of subscribers with some of the videos attracting tens of thousands of views.

As of Tuesday evening, the channels were all taken offline with a message that said they had been removed "due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy.”

A Facebook profile and two Instagram accounts associated with Sabz have also been taken down. In one of the Instagram profiles, the woman describes herself as an “athlete, artist, comedian, poet, model, singer, host, actor, director, producer.” The other Instagram account appeared to be dedicated to animal rights and promoting a vegan lifestyle.

The website in Sabz’s name displays numerous images that appear show Aghdam in colourful outfits posing with different animals or in patterned workout unitards. A quick scroll through the website reveals a number of messages slamming YouTube for “suppressing” her channels and preventing her from attracting views.

“There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!” one post reads.

Filtering views

Further down, another statement claims that “close-minded YouTube employees” got control of the woman’s Farsi channels in 2016 and began filtering them to reduce views and discourage her from making more videos. In one image uploaded to the website, she claims she was paid only US 10 cents for 300,000 video views.

YouTube regularly pays content creators for videos with a lot of views that attract advertisers, but the company has the ability to "de-monitize” certain channels for various reasons.

A video that has been widely shared on Twitter appears to show Aghdam criticizing YouTube for filtering her videos and putting an age-restriction on some of her content.

“I am being discriminated and filtered on YouTube,” she states.

She claims that YouTube recently “attacked” her Persian channel Nasime Sabz.

“If you go and check my videos you see that my new videos hardly get views and my old videos that used to get many views, stopped getting views.”

The woman said she contacted YouTube’s support team and was told that her videos contained “inappropriate things.” She compared her workout videos to popular racy music videos by Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus and questioned why hers were deemed inappropriate and theirs weren’t.

Towards the end of the video, she blames her animal rights activism as the reason why YouTube filtered her videos.

“People like me are not good for big businesses,” she said. “That’s why they are discriminating and censoring us.”

In 2009, Aghdam was photographed by The San Diego Union-Tribune at a PETA protest demonstrating against the military’s use of pigs in training.

“For me, animal rights equal human rights,” Aghdam was quoted as telling the paper at the time.

Police said they’re still investigating a motive for the attack during the press conference on Wednesday.

With files from The Associated Press