YouTube Terminated The Account Of A 14-Year-Old Star Over Her Anti-Gay Video

After her account was removed, Soph tweeted an image of herself with what appeared to be a gun, with the caption, “youtube headquarters here I come.”

YouTube has removed the account of Soph, a 14-year-old girl who accumulated nearly a million followers through racist and anti-Muslim videos, after she uploaded an anti-LGBTQ video on July 31.

In the video, a 12-minute anti-gay rant titled “Pride and Prejudice,” Soph encourages her followers to “make sure to blame me in your manifestos” — a direct reference to the kind of document posted to 8chan by the Christchurch shooter who killed 51 people in March. On Saturday, the El Paso shooting suspect would also publish a manifesto to 8chan before killing 22 people.

According to YouTube, the channel was removed in accordance with its strike system, under which YouTube terminates accounts that violate its Community Guidelines three times in 90 days; in the case of Soph’s channel, the final strike violated the site’s Community Guidelines on hate speech.

Soph, who earlier this year threatened to murder YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, had managed to keep her account active, though YouTube did levy a temporary suspension and demonetize her account.

In June, YouTube faced weeks of blistering criticism for its hate speech policies — including direct questions from the press about the Soph channel. The same month, YouTube announced new policies aimed at reducing “harmful content.”

After her channel was taken down, Soph tweeted an image of herself with what appears to be an assault rifle, with the caption “youtube headquarters here I come.” She later removed the tweet. “Gun tweet obviosly a joke,” she wrote in a follow-up tweet.

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