YouTube won’t take down livestream footage of Boulder shooting

YouTube spokesperson said ‘we do allow certain violent or graphic content with sufficient news or documentary context, and so we’ve applied an age restriction to this particular content’

YouTube won't take down the live-streamed footage of the shooting in a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Ten people died during the shooting that was broadcast live by a self-described citizen journalist.

YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez said in a statement to The Independent: "Following yesterday’s tragic shooting, bystander videos of the incident were detected by our teams.

"Violent content intended to shock or disgust viewers and hate speech are not allowed on YouTube, and as a result, we have removed a number of videos for violating our policies.

"We do allow certain violent or graphic content with sufficient news or documentary context, and so we’ve applied an age restriction to this particular content. We will continue to monitor this rapidly changing situation."

YouTube has added a warning to the video that says: "The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as inappropriate or offensive to some audiences." The video had garnered over 620,000 views as of Tuesday afternoon.

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The live streamer Dean Schiller has been criticized for showing dead bodies and police tactics live on a platform that suspects could possibly have seen. The Denver Gazettereported that authorities asked the media not to reveal tactical information.

Other criticisms include that he argued with officers who tried to get him to leave the scene and speculating about the shooter's motives.

At one point in the video, Mr Schiller tells officers: “I’m a journalist, don’t yell at me, I’m watching you, I’ll do what I want.”

He later told police to "f*** off". Before ending the live stream, Mr Schiller asked viewers to like his videos and subscribe to his channel.

The Denver Gazette also reported that Mr Schiller was well-known to cops before the live stream of the shooting took place.

The "about" section on the YouTube channel where the video was posted states: "Primarily my focus has been to observe and document police activity in the city of Boulder, Colorado, USA. It is my goal to educate, inform, and entertain the public as an independent journalist".

Mr Schiller and Jedon Kerr, who both say they are citizen journalists, filed a lawsuit against the City of Boulder in 2019 after they were arrested and jailed but not charged for filming in and around the Boulder County Jail.

In a story by Denver independent newspaper Westword about the lawsuit, Mr Schiller is quoted as saying: “It was extremely important, though, that we not break any laws or obstruct officers from doing their jobs.”

Jordan Wildon, a researcher on far-right extremists, told Vice News that the comment section of the video "was wild with speculation about potential suspects, as well as anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories including that the attack was a false flag. These were fueled by what was shown on-stream”.

After Mr Schiller was removed from the scene by police, he was interviewed by several media outlets, interviews he also live-streamed. He then travelled by car to another suspected shooting scene in Boulder, according to Vice News.

The Independent has reached out to Mr Schiller for comment.