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YouTube has stopped British comedian Russell Brand from being able to earn any money through his channel for violating its ’’Creator Responsibility policy’ amid allegations of rape and sexual abuse.
The 48-year-old produces around five videos a week for his 6.6million subscribers, earning him an estimated £1million a year.
Under the terms of his suspension, he will still be allowed to post videos on the platform but will not receive any of the advertising revenue.
YouTube said in a statement: ‘If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community.’
On Saturday, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches reported allegations of abusive and predatory behaviour including rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse said to have been committed by the presenter between 2006 and 2013.
The news comes after the remaining shows of Brand’s Bipolarisation tour were postponed and the Metropolitan Police said they had received a report of an alleged sexual assault in the wake of media allegations about the comedian and actor.
Brand ‘absolutely denies’ the allegations and insists all his relationships have been consensual.
The scandal has already seen Channel 4 remove all programmes linked to Brand on its website, including episodes of The Great British Bake Off and Big Brother’s Big Mouth in which he was featured. Brand’s PR firm MBC PR and talent agent Tavistock Wood no longer advertise him as a client, and his publisher has suspended their relationship.
Netflix has now been urged to remove his comedy special, Re:Birth, from its catalogue.
Brand’s YouTube account has been suspended from YouTube’s Partner Programme ‘following serious allegations against the creator’, meaning the channel is no longer able to make money from advertising on the platform.
The statement added: ‘This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand.’
Other channels associated with his main YouTube page include Football Is Nice, which has some 20,000 subscribers, Awakening With Russell, which has 426,000 subscribers, and Stay Free With Russell Brand, which has 22,200 subscribers.
YouTube added that suspending a creator from the YouTube Partner Programme means they are ‘prohibited from using a new or alternate channel to circumvent our enforcement decision’.
The investigation by Channel 4, The Times, and Sunday Times began four years ago. Around the same time, he stepped back from much of his TV and movie work.
His net worth has been estimated between £15million and £40million with YouTube experts claiming he makes $61,000-a-month from YouTube plus another $100k-a-month from merchandise and paid subscriptions to his podcast.
He lives with his wife Laura Gallacher in their £3million riverside home in Henley, Oxfordshire.
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