Who is Nasim Aghdam? Everything we know about the YouTube HQ shooter

The woman who opened fire at YouTube's offices in California on Tuesday raged against the video-sharing service for what she saw as censorship of her clips on her niche channel covering vegan issues, animal rights, Persian culture and fitness.

Nasim Aghdam, 39, of Southern California, was identified by police officials as the woman who approached the campus around lunchtime and began to fire before entering the building of the Google-owned video sharing service.

One man and two women were shot in the incident before the female shooter apparently committed suicide.

Ms Aghdam’s family say she was “angry” with the company and had complained about YouTube supposedly censoring her videos and cutting her ad revenue.

They had reported her missing to police and warned them she “might do something” after officers spotted her sleeping in a car in Mountain View hours before the shooting.

Nasim Aghdam
Suspected shooter Nasim Aghdam

Aghdam had a significant internet presence before her clips were scrubbed and her account deleted in the aftermath of the shooting.

She reportedly posted videos under the name “Nasim Wonder1,” with some dating back to 2011.

Reported missing by her family

The YouTuber’s brother told The Mercury News she had been reported missing since the weekend and had stopped answering her mobile phone.

“She was always complaining that YouTube ruined her life,” he said.

Mr Aghdam says he warned police his sister “might do something” after realising she had travelled hundreds of miles across the state to Mountain View.

Nasim Aghdam
Her family say they reported her missing to police

“I Googled ‘Mountain View’ and it was close to YouTube headquarters. And she had a problem with YouTube,” he told KGTV.

“So I called the cop again and told him there’s a reason she went all the way from San Diego to there, so she might do something.

“So they didn’t do anything, and she got killed … and three or four more people got hurt.”

Nasim Aghdam
Nasim Aghdam had a number of different social media accounts

Police found her sleeping in a vehicle in a car park the night before the shooting and contacted her family to say she had been found.

“Our officers made contact with the woman after the license plate of her vehicle matched that of a missing person out of Southern California,” a Mountain View police spokesperson confirmed.

“The woman confirmed her identity to us and answered subsequent questions. At the conclusion of our discussion, her family was notified that she had been located.”

Ms Aghdam’s father told local media he had warned police that she “hated” the company and expressed concern that she may be travelling to the company’s headquarters in San Burno.

He told NBC News that YouTube had “stopped everything and now she has no income”.

Her brother added today would have been her 39th birthday.

Complaints about YouTube

According to NBC, she says in a video posted in January 2017 that YouTube “discriminated and filtered” her content. In the video, Aghdam reportedly says her channel used to get lots of views but that after being “filtered” by the company, it received far fewer views.

She complained YouTube had imposed an age restriction on one of her workout videos because it was too racy, yet it hadn't taken the same action for stars like Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj, whose videos, she said, were inappropriate for children.

Nasim Aghdam
Suspected shooter Nasim Aghdam posted workout videos on YouTube

"I am being discriminated on and filtered on YouTube and I am not the only one," she said.

Aghdam was angry at YouTube because it had stopped paying her for videos she posted on the platform, her father told the Bay Area News Group .

He told NBC News that YouTube had “stopped everything and now she has no income”.

On the website NasimeSabz.com,  identified as hers by the San Francisco Chronicle, she had several posts about Persian culture and veganism, interspersed with rants against YouTube.

Those complaints included claims the company was not sharing enough revenue with people who create videos for the platform.

"There is no free speech in real world and you will be suppressed for telling the truth that is not supported by the system," she wrote in one post.

"There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube or any other video sharing site."

Nasim Aghdam YouTube shooting - Credit: AP/Jeff Chiu
Law enforcement officials walk toward YouTube offices in San Bruno after a woman opened fire before turning the gun on herselfCredit: AP/Jeff Chiu

In an Instagram post dated March 18, Aghdam complains again about YouTube's alleged censorship, saying it was using its tools to “censor and suppress people who speak the truth and are not good for the financial, political gains of the system and big businesses.”

Her most recent YouTube video  came three weeks ago and was titled “Leg Exercises At Home Fitness.”

Animal Rights activism

Aghdam was also a prominent animal rights protester.

She was quoted in a 2009 story in the San Diego Union-Tribune about a protest by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against the use of pigs in military trauma training.

Nasim Aghdam - Credit: peacethunder.com
Nasim Aghdam was also a prominent animal rights protesterCredit: peacethunder.com

She dressed in a wig and jeans with drops of painted "blood" on them, holding a plastic sword at the demonstration outside the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base.

"For me, animal rights equal human rights," Aghdam told the Union-Tribune at the time.

A message on her YouTube accounts said the pages  were removed due to “multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy against spam, deceptive practices, and misleading content or other Term of Service violations.”