YouTube has suspended the monetisation of Russell Brand’s hugely popular channel following the rape and sexual assault allegations made over the weekend.
On Tuesday (September 19), the flagship company released a statement confirming the changes following the explosive Dispatches documentary.
It read: “We have suspended the monetisation on Russell Brand’s channel for violating our Creator Responsibility policy.
READ MORE: Met Police receives Russell Brand alleged sexual assault claim from 2003
“If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community.”
(Image: Getty Images)
The company said that it had suspended the comedian’s channel from the YouTube Partner Program “following serious allegations against the creator. This action means the channel is no longer able to monetise on YouTube.”
This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by the 48-year-old, it clarified.
Over the weekend, the Hollywood actor has been accused of rape, assault and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013 during the height of his fame.
(Image: Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
At the time, the TV star was working for the BBC, Channel 4 as well as starring in a number of Hollywood films.
The Metropolitan police have since revealed they have now received an allegation of a sexual assault in Soho, central London, which took place back in 2003.
It comes after the explosive Channel 4 Dispatches documentary Russell Brand: Hiding in Plain Sight, which was made in conjunction with The Times and The Sunday Times, hit the airwaves over the weekend.
(Image: PA)
In the hour-long special, the dad-of-two was accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse – which he strongly denied in a video on his YouTube channel.
Over the past few years, the former TV personality has shifted from producing his comedy specials to regularly posting videos about spirituality and politics to his six million followers.
Since the news hit the headlines, Brand took to his YouTube channel to share his response to the allegations.
(Image: PA)
He said: One from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn’t be able to attack mainstream media narratives on his channel.
“But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, often very serious allegations that I absolutely refute. These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies. And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous.
“Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that. Then almost too transparent, and I’m being transparent about it now as well.”
(Image: Channel 4)
Russell went on: “And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question is there another agenda at play?
“Particularly when we’ve seen coordinated media attacks before, like with Joe Rogan, when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn’t approve of, and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language.
“I’m aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while, ‘Watch out, Russell, they’re coming from you, you’re getting to close to the truth’. Russell Brand did not kill himself, I know that a year ago there was a spate of articles, Russell Brand’s a conspiracy theorists, Russell Brand’s right wing’.
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
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“I’m aware of news media making phone calls, sending letters to people I know for ages and ages. It’s being clear to me, or at least it feels to me like there’s a serious and concerted agenda to control these kind of spaces and these kinds of voices. And I mean, my voice along with your voice.
“I don’t mind them using my books and my standout to talk about my promiscuous consensual conduct in the past. What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations. Also it’s worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narrative that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently, in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack.”
If you have been affected by this story, contact Rape Crisis England & Wales for free confidential support and information on 08088029999 or their website or 08088010302 if you’re calling from Scotland.
You can contact the Domestic and Sexual Abuse helpline on 0808 802 1414 if you are in Ireland.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
