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.
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.
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.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
YouTube has suspended Russell Brand’s ability to earn money on the platform following allegations of rape and sexual assault in a massive hit to his finances.
The video-sharing and social media site said it had suspended Brand’s channel from the YouTube partner programme after serious allegations against him, meaning his videos are no longer able to be monetised on the platform.
The 48-year-old comedian and actor has been accused of rape, assault and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013, when he was at the height of his fame working for the BBC, Channel 4 and starring in Hollywood films.
Suspending Brand’s ability to earn money from his YouTube channel is a major blow to the comedian’s finances.
YouTube pays creators a cut of the money it earns from showing adverts next to their videos, which can be a highly lucrative business.
A spokesperson for YouTube said: “We have suspended monetisation on Russell Brand’s channel for violating our creator responsibility policy.
The original article contains 600 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Google is a privately owned company. Brand could try to sue, but he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
Google is a private company that can choose who to do business with. By signing up to use the platform, you have to agree to their terms of service which state that they can decide to stop doing business with you at any time for any reason they deem. In this case, they chose to stop doing business with him by demonetizing his videos due to the allegations against him. He’s free to sue them, but that’s a battle that will be hard fought and could take years.
