LONDON — YouTube said Tuesday that Russell Brand will no longer make money from the video streaming site after several women made allegations of sexual assault against the comedian-turned-influencer.
YouTube said monetization of Brand’s account, which has 6.6 million subscribers, has been suspended “following serious allegations against the creator.”
Russell Brand leaves the Troubabour Wembley Park theater in northwest London after performing a comedy set on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023.
“This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand,” the Google-owned video service said.
The suspension means Brand won’t be able to earn money from the ads that run within and alongside YouTube videos, which have titles including “What REALLY Started the Hawaii Fires?” and “Covid Tsar Admits Lockdowns Were NEVER About Science.”
Other channels associated with Brand’s main YouTube page include Awakening With Russell, which has 426,000 subscribers, Football Is Nice, which has some 20,000 subscribers, and Stay Free With Russell Brand, which has 22,200 subscribers.
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Brand still has a presence on Rumble, a video site popular with some conservatives and far-right groups, where his channel has 1.4 million followers. He also has 11.2 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, and 3.8 million on Instagram.
Brand, 48, denies allegations of sexual assault made by four women in a Channel 4 television documentary and The Times and Sunday Times newspapers. The accusers, who have not been named, include one who said she was sexually assaulted during a relationship with him when she was 16. Another woman says Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012.
The four allegations date from between 2006 and 2013. London’s Metropolitan Police force said that since those claims were made public, it has received a report of a separate sexual assault dating from 2003.
Known for his unbridled and risqué standup routines, Brand was a major U.K. star in the early 2000s. He hosted shows on radio and television, wrote memoirs charting his battles with drugs and alcohol, appeared in several Hollywood movies and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry between 2010 and 2012.
In recent years Brand has largely disappeared from mainstream media but has built up a large following online with videos mixing wellness and conspiracy theories. His YouTube channel has featured COVID-19 conspiracy theories, vaccine misinformation and interviews with controversial broadcasters, including Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan.
He also has continued to tour as a comedian, performing to hundreds of people in a London venue on Saturday. He had been due to perform on Tuesday in Windsor, west of London, but promoters said the rest of the tour was being postponed following the allegations.
Brand also has been dropped by his talent agency and a publisher since the allegations became public.
Ellie Tomsett, senior lecturer in media and communications at Birmingham City University, said it was too soon to tell whether the claims 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 current understandings of gender equality,” she said. “And so I think in the longer term, will it impact his career in the way that we may be expect it to? Possibly not.”
Photos: Russell Brand through the years
Comedian and actor Russell Brand with his mother attend the British film premiere of ‘ St Trinian’s ‘ in London, Monday, Dec 10, 2007. (AP Photo / Alastair Grant)
From left, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Bill Hader and Jason Segel make an appearance at MTV Studio’s in Times Square for MTV’s “Total Request Live,” show to promote their new movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” on Tuesday, April 15, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer)
Actor Russell Brand makes an appearance at MTV Studio’s in Times Square for MTV’s “Total Request Live” show on Tuesday, April 15, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer)
Host of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, actor Russell Brand, poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
Actor and host Russell Brand, left, talks with singer Christina Aguilera at the MTV Video Music Awards sneak preview press conference at Paramount Pictures studio in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Actor Russell Brand arrives at The White Party benefiting Malaria No More in Los Angeles on Saturday, July 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Singe Katy Perry, left, and actor Russell Brand arrive at the EMI Grammy party in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Russell Brand, left, a cast member in “Get Him to the Greek,” poses alongside his fiancee, singer Katy Perry, at the premiere of the film at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, Tuesday, May 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
British actor Russell Brand makes a grimace during a photo-call to promote his movie ‘Get Him To The Greek’ ( German title ‘Maennertrip’) in Berlin, on Friday, June 25, 2010. The movie will start in Germany on Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Jonah Hill, left, Russell Brand, center, and Sean Diddy Combs present the award for best breakout star at the MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, Calif., on Sunday, June 6, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
Russell Brand appears at a book signing for his memoir “My Booky Wook 2” at Barnes & Noble in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes)
British actor-comedian Russell Brand, center, smiles at a group of tourists passing by at the Ranthambore National Park in Ranthambore, India, Friday, Oct. 22, 2010. Russell Brand’s friend and a bodyguard assaulted four news photographers, including one from The Associated Press, when they were taking pictures of the British comedian Friday in an Indian tiger reserve before his wedding to Katy Perry, the photographers said. The photographers had been following about 330 feet (100 meters) behind two jeeps, one carrying Brand, a woman who was not Perry, a man and two children, and the second carrying the bodyguard and another man later described by police as Brand’s friend and wedding guest. (AP Photo)
In this March 19, 2011 photo, Russell Brand is shown during a press preview for the film, “HOP” in Universal City, Calif. A couple years ago, British comedian Russell Brand was an American unknown who hoped to gain fans stateside by hosting the MTV Video Music Awards. Now, he’s become the kind of big-name leading man who opens big studio movies on back-to-back weekends. (AP Photo/MJ Kim)
Actors Russell Brand, left, and Rico Rodriguez present the award for “Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie” at Nickelodeon’s 24th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards on Saturday, April 2, 2011, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
Katy Perry, left, and Russell Brand arrive at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday Aug. 28, 2011, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Russell Brand is seen onstage at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday, June 3, 2012 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Comedian Russell Brand speaks in Parliament Square during a protest against the Conservative Government and it’s austerity policies in London, Saturday, June 20, 2015. The protest is intended to be peaceful, but demonstrators are angry at public sector cuts meant to address government deficits, which ballooned after Britain rescued troubled banks during the 2008 financial crisis. Demonstrators argue the public is being punished for a crisis it did not cause. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)