How YouTube’s “adpocalypse” may have figured in its Tuesday campus shooting

An image taken from alleged shooter Nasim Aghdam's personal website. (credit: Nasim Aghdam)

As news unfolded about Tuesday's YouTube shooting, a chilling motive emerged. Ahead of the incident, the alleged shooter had posted videos maligning the service—doing so as a former money-making user of the site.

"I'm being discriminated [against] and filtered on YouTube, and I'm not the only one," alleged shooter Nasim Aghdam said in a video that was shared after her identity as the shooting's current, sole casualty was revealed. "My workout video gets age-restricted. Vegan activists and other people who try to point out healthy, humane, and smart living, people like me, are not good for big business. That's why they are discriminating [against] and censoring us."

The shooting has put a massive spotlight on this topic, which, up until now, has been more likely to appear in angry YouTube videos than on major newspaper headlines. But well before this shooting, Aghdam was just one of many voices on the site to cry foul about YouTube's policies.