YouTube CEO Defends Decision To Strip Russell Brand’s Channel Of Ads
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YouTube CEO Neal Mohan has defended the decision to strip Russell Brand’s 6.6M-subscriber channel of ads, thereby preventing him from monetizing it following sexual assault allegations.
“If creators have off-platform behavior, or there’s off-platform news that could be damaging to the broader creator ecosystem, you can be suspended from our monetization program,” said Mohan during a preview of a CBS Mornings interview due out Monday.
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Several creators and personalities have been impacted in a similar way in the past, added Mohan.
He was speaking two days after YouTube Europe boss Pedro Pina said Brand won’t be silenced following the monetization pause, with YouTube’s algorithm still working on the videos. Video site Rumble, on the other hand, has declined to de-monetize Brand’s videos, lashing out earlier this week after receiving a letter from a UK government committee head telling it to do so.
Brand has vehemently denied allegations that he sexually assaulted four women at the height of his fame, claiming the reports were part of a coordinated “mainstream media” plot to silence him. He denies criminal wrongdoing and says all relationships were consensual.
Mohan, who has only been in post a few months, told CBS that YouTube applies de-monetization rules “equally across our entire creator ecosystem,” adding that it does not play favorites but looks at the content rather than the person.
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