Nasim Aghdam, known as Nasime Sabz, was an American-based Iranian-born artist whose primary M.O. was to promote a veganic lifestyle through propagandist recipes, beauty tips, music, health and fitness. Her parodies of carnivorism, capitalism, sexual promiscuity and general “unhealthiness” included attacks on Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray and Leila Forouhar.

As a fame-seeker, Sabz was unabashed about her attempts to reach the upper echelon of online personalities. Posting primarily on YouTube, she maintained channels in Farsi, English and Turkish. As an activist, her method was to use this attention economy to promote her beliefs which were critical of both Western and Middle Eastern lifestyles.

Eschewing a typical influencer aesthetic (DSLR, beauty light ring, scandi style apartment and strategically placed sponsorship items), her video work is more reminiscent of Tim and Eric — cheap green-screen effects, home video editing style, absurdist music lacking musicality and dancing out of time.

Sabz’ cornerstone content were videos that depict animal cruelty to expose the destructive effects of industry. After a sudden drop in viewership, Sabz claimed that YouTube was actively and algorithmically filtering and suppressing her content, that all online video sharing sites control channel growth by manipulating what is popular. All of which is, of course, true. Video sharing services can and do control what is popular —primarily through their recommendation algorithms. According to YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan, “over 70 percent of time people spend watching YouTube is driven by our recommendations.” Monahan, Neil. “CES a Reminder of How Far TV Tech Has Come (Guest Column)”. Variety. (retreived 11 September 2020)

When YouTube star Logan Paul (whose estimated advertising revenue in 2018 sat at $14.5 million) posted a video of an apparent suicide victim in Japan his account was temporarily suspended. When, after his account was reinstated, he posted a video of himself tasing a dead rat, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki commented on the matter saying, “He hasn’t done anything that would cause those three strikes.” She continued that, “We can’t just be pulling people off our platform … They need to violate a policy. We need to have consistent [rules]. This is like a code of law.” “Logan Paul ‘won’t be kicked off’ YouTube”. BBC Tech. (retreived 11 September 2020)

Wojcicki was careful to distinguish these rules from a question of taste: “What you think is tasteless is not necessarily what someone else would think is tasteless … we need to have consistent laws, so that in our policies, so we can apply it consistently to millions of videos, millions of creators.” Shah, Sabih. “YouTube boss explains why she WON’T ban Logan Paul after dead body and rat taser videos”. The Sun. (retreived 11 September 2020)

Given the discrepancies between YouTube’s treatment of Logan Paul and Nasime Sabz, min.report reached out to Susan Wojcicki to clarify the policies that Sabz was violating but did not receive a response.

Ultimately, Sabz’ frustrations with YouTube shadow-banning her content, and ergo limiting her income, drove Sabz to take her own life after opening fire at YouTube Headquarters on April 3, 2018. In response to the incident and the demonetisation policies, other content creators (even those who oppose her views) spoke out in support of Sabz and shared their experiences of how these measures affected their mental health—sleepless nights and feelings of mania and rage for having their livelihood severed by the corporation. Likened to being fired from a job or dumped by a lover, the content creator to platform relationship is an intimate one.

The shooting incident instantly catapulted her into the mainstream media and created an underground edgelord culture of support on sites like 4chan. She became a free-speech martyr for troll bros and incels who labelled her aesthetic as Nasimcore, her belief system as Nasimism and themselves as Nasimlads.

In the days leading to the incident, Nasim had been reported missing and was categorized to be at-risk. According to The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, “At Risk” includes but is not limited to:

“The person missing being the victim of a crime or foul play, in need of medical attention, has no pattern of running away or disappearing, the victim of parent/family abduction, or mentally impaired.
Missing Persons Investigations – Guidelines & Curriculum | The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training

According to the footage, her missing persons’ report was incomplete Police bodycam footage of Nasim Aghdam – 6:28 and the officers were initially unable to determine why she was deemed at-risk.

Conversation between Officer 1 and 2

Officer 1: “So what’re you supposed to do in these cases?”

Officer 2: “Um… Usually make contact and find out what’s going on… it may be because she wanted to commit suicide, then you just gotta confirm that she’s not going to do that.”

“And then you have them do a MUPS, uh, return. Take her out of MUPS. She’s an adult so she doesn’t have to go home obviously … and you know, see what her story is, and then you’ll get a vibe of whether she’s 5150 or not.”

5150 refers to the California law code for the temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness.

As the officers speculate on why she was deemed at-risk, they are informed by an agency that she had never been reported as missing before, which is why she had been classified as at-risk. Officer 2 minimises the at-risk categorisation by telling Officer 1, “You don’t have to worry about 5150.”

Nasim’s father was contacted when she was located and upon learning she was just 40 km south of YouTube’s headquarters, he warned police of her potential destination because she “hated” the company. Baron, Ethan. “YouTube shooter’s father says she was angry at company”. The Mercury News. (retreived 11 September 2020) Despite also visiting a gun range the day prior to the shooting, Yan, Holly; Karimi, Faith. “YouTube shooter visited gun range before attacking strangers, police say”. CNN. (retreived 11 September 2020) the officers did not deem her a threat.

As is often the case, Mountain View Police Department’s officers did not exhibit the skills, experience or processes/protocols to make an assessment of her wellbeing. Their objective was to get her out of the missing persons unit (MUPS), and any mention of potential YouTube-induced psychosis would have complicated this “workflow.”

This is an unfortunately commonplace instance where police are not capable of identifying mental health crises or understanding the nuances of “risk” — as is evident in a more recent example where Utah police shot 13-year-old Linden Cameron who struggled with autism after his mother called 911 for help Elfrnik, Tim. “A Police Officer Shot a 13-Year-Old With Autism in Salt Lake City”. New York Times. (retreived 14 September 2020). Or other high-profile cases such as Daniel Prude, who died of asphyxiation after Rochester, N.Y., police put a hood over his head during a mental health episode. Hurt, Charles. “Daniel Prude case: We want to look away, but the police can’t”. Washington Times. (retreived 14 September 2020)

Traces of Nasime Sabz online are now exceptionally hard to come by. Rather than a Wikipedia page for Sabz herself, any information about this intriguing content-creator now sit under the title “YouTube headquarters shooting.”

Below is an archive of all the content created and shared by Nasime Sabz on her Telegram account between February 2016 and March 2018. The channel was automatically closed in March 2019 due to inactivity.

Long Live the New Flesh: The Nasime Sabz Telegram Archive

Notes