I was reading about the allegations against Russell Brand and couldn’t help but wonder how it works legally that his revenue can be blocked based on allegations and before any juridical ruling.
Don’t get me wrong I don’t know much about the guy and what he did or didn’t do and agree that anyone should be punished according to their crimes.
But how is this possible with the principal of innocent until proven guilty? I’d be happy if someone could explain me.
Innocent until proven guilty is a criminal philosophy in the US court system.
Companies, and social media operate at the social level. Reputation and impressions matter. Companies are not bound by the same rules of conduct that courts are.
It’s unfortunate that the internet likes to have a character to hate, and fully engages in the hate machine when somebody is served up. Sometimes the target of the 3 minutes hate is innocent, and they just suffer even if their name is cleared. The damage is done.
The overwhelming majority of big companies include a morality clause in their sponsorship contracts that allows them to terminate deals with endorsers based on public sentiment.
You can sue anybody for anything. So sure, do they have actionable grounds? No.
In private commerce there is no compunction for people to do business with you.
It becomes different if we talk about utilities, power water internet.
In America, you have no rights as a worker. Get caught or alleged to have done something unethical? You will be fired long before charges are filed or a conviction, if those things ever happen.
In the same way, YouTube isn’t legally obligated to do business with people who a) are unpopular or b) otherwise misalign with whatever they think their brand is.
It’s about ads. The great thing about putting videos on YouTube is that Google does the work of selling ad slots for you, the not-so-great thing is that because those advertisers are actually Google’s customers, if they think they might be upset to see their ad running in your video, they’ll err on the side of pulling it.
But I daresay if Russell Brand had advertisers working with him directly, most of them would also be suspending their relationships with him right now; nobody wants anything to do with this sort of allegation.
“Innocent until proven guilty” very specifically applies to punishment by the courts and government (which would be UK courts in this case). Everyone else can still think he’s a sleazebag and want nothing to do with him without knowing exactly which crimes he may have committed.
I could absolutely be fired by my employer for harassing colleagues in a way that wouldn’t be outright illegal. Same here for streaming companies, traditional TV production companies, etc not wanting to work with him.
