YouTube said on Tuesday that it had sued several women over sexual assault allegation Against the comedian-turned-influencer.
The BBC has removed some of Brand’s material from its streaming archives, joining a growing list of organizations distancing themselves from the performer, who denies sexual assault and has not been charged with any criminal offences. crime.
YouTube said monetization on Brand’s account, which has 6.6 million subscribers, had been suspended “following serious allegations against the creator.”
“This decision applies to all channels that Russell Brand may own or operate,” the Google-owned video service said.
The suspension means Brand won’t be able to earn revenue from ads placed in and next to YouTube videos with titles like “What’s the real cause of Hawaii fires?” and “COVID czar admits lockdowns have nothing to do with science.”
Other channels associated with Brand’s YouTube page include Awakening With Russell, which has 426,000 subscribers, Football Is Nice, which has about 20,000 subscribers, and Stay Free With Russell Brand, which has 22,200 subscribers.
Brand still appears on Rumble, a video site popular with some conservative and far-right groups, and his channel has 1.4 million followers. He also has 11.2 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 3.8 million followers on Instagram.
Brand, 48, denies allegations of sexual assault against four women made in a Channel 4 TV documentary and in The Times and Sunday Times newspapers. One of the unnamed accusers said he was sexually assaulted when he was 16 years old during a relationship with Brand. Another woman claimed that Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012.
The four charges occurred between 2006 and 2013. London’s Metropolitan Police said it had received reports of another sexual assault in 2003 since the allegations were made public.
Known for his unbridled and raunchy stand-up routines, Brand was a major British star in the early 2000s. He hosted shows on radio and television, wrote a memoir chronicling his struggles with drugs and alcohol, appeared in several Hollywood films and was briefly married to pop singer Katy Perry from 2010 to 2012.
The brand has largely disappeared from mainstream media in recent years, but has built a massive online following through videos that mix health and conspiracy theories. His YouTube channel features COVID-19 conspiracy theories, vaccine misinformation and interviews with controversial broadcasters including Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan.
He also continues to tour as a comedian, performing to hundreds of people at a London venue on Saturday. He was due to perform in Windsor, west London, on Tuesday, but organizers said the rest of the tour would be postponed following the charges.
The BBC said it had removed some content featuring Brand from its iPlayer and Sounds apps “which has been assessed to be below public expectations.”
Brand’s agency and publisher have also fired Brand since the allegations became public.
Ellie Tomsett, senior lecturer in media and communications at Birmingham City University, said it was too early to tell whether the allegations would end Brand’s comedy career.
“I think there’s definitely a market for ‘outsider’ comedians…or people who want to position themselves as some way or alternative to the current understanding of gender equality,” she said. “So I think in the long run, is this going to impact his career the way we expect it to? Probably not.”
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