Russell Brand: Live shows postponed and YouTube channel demonized after sexual assault allegations

YouTube has suspended British comedian Russell Brand’s channels from earning money from ads for “violating” its “creator accountability policy.”

The news comes after the comedian and actor was accused of rape and sexual assault between 2006 and 2013.

Known for his risky stand-up routines, Brand, 48, denies allegations of sexual assault made by four women in a Channel 4 television documentary and in The Times and Sunday Times newspapers. Among the accusers, who have not been named, one said he was sexually assaulted when he was 16. Another woman claims Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012.

London’s Metropolitan Police said that since the allegations were made public it had received “a report of a sexual assault believed to have taken place in Soho, central London, in 2003”.

“If a creator’s off-platform behavior harms our users, our employees, or our ecosystem, we take action,” a YouTube spokesperson said today.

The move also comes after the remaining concerts on Brand’s Bipolarization tour were postponed.

Tour organizers said in a statement: “We’re postponing these few drug addiction charity concerts, we don’t like doing it – but we know you’ll understand.”

In a video statement released last Friday in response to media claims, Brand said his relationships were “always consensual.”

Max Blain, spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, said the claims were “very serious and concerning”. Conservative lawmaker Caroline Nokes, who chairs the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, urged British and US police to investigate the “incredibly shocking” allegations.

Brand was dropped by talent agency Tavistock Wood, which said it had been “horribly misled” by him, while publisher Bluebird, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, said it had decided to “pause” future publications with Brand.