Douglas has been arrested by the FBI for cyberstalking and making threats of carrying out a massacre.
William Douglas, a fringe-right conspiracy theorist whose bizarre videos regularly satiate the rapacious appetite of his viewers, was arrested by the FBI this past week for threatening to carry out a massacre at YouTube’s headquarters, reports the Daily Beast.
The FBI is taking the threats very seriously, especially after another YouTuber, Nasim Aghdam, opened fire on YouTube employees in April of this year over her beliefs that the video-sharing site was deliberately stifling her social media views. Douglas had himself promoted Aghdam at the time by sharing a video eulogizing her efforts, making his threats all the more dangerous.
Among the bizarre videos peddled by William Douglas on YouTube, he rants about debunked alt-right theories including Pizzagate, Flat Eartherism, and QAnon, the last being a ridiculous theory which claims that president Donald Trump is not under investigation for his campaign’s ties with Russia, but that he is investigating “virtually every prominent Democrat and Hollywood figure for Satanic child sex-trafficking.”
He has also posted hundreds of videos totaling thousands of views, peddling ideas such as the existence of a New World Order, reptilians who transmute themselves into anthropomorphic figures in order to rule the world, and government mind control programs. He has also accused Hillary Clinton of running a child-sex ring, as well as claim that the earth is not a round planet, but actually a flat surface with edges that one can fall off from.
But despite having racked hundreds of thousands of views, Douglas has claimed that YouTube is censoring his videos. He has provided no proof to back his allegations but has tried to fan the sentiment prevalent among far-right vloggers that Silicon Valley is actively trying to stifle their content. Although recent studies have debunked those allegations, showing that conservative outlets and vloggers have a more expansive reach on sites like Facebook than liberal outlets, he has received some encouragement.
Popular alt-right figurehead Alex Jones of Infowars has been banned from social media sites, but that was partially a response to his involvement in a defamation suit filed by Sandy Hook victims after Jones had called the tragedy a hoax carried out by crisis actors.
According to the criminal complaint that became a basis for Douglas’ arrest, the YouTuber ranted about carrying out a massacre at YouTube headquarters, and “kill” 100 employees.
“Return my channel you low life as Sholes before someone else comes and shoots more of your employees you f**ks,” he tweeted last month.
“F**K you @youtube im few hours away and if you are just going to ignore me try ignoring my gun you f**ks … no more warning expect massive casualties … I would kill the 100 YouTube employees if given the chance”.
In early September, he posted a video with a similar threat and just last week, he threatened YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki directly, saying “Susan I’m coming for you today,” with the hashtag “#pray.”
Douglas has been charged with cyberstalking crimes in addition to making death threats, and more information about his trial will be published when it becomes available.
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