Chris Booth’s channel – rife with neo-Nazi ideology, antisemitism and racism – garnered 2.3m views and likely thousands of dollars from YouTube in about two months. The Guardian has identified the self-described “national socialist” behind an openly extremist YouTube channel that in just over two months has accumulated 50,000 subscribers, seen more than 2.3m views, and likely made thousands of dollars from YouTube’s revenue-sharing monetization program. Johnathan Christopher “Chris” Booth, 37, lives in the unincorporated community of Coral, a part of Maple Valley Township in Michigan’s Montcalm county, and is married to a senior local Republican official. Booth has published more than 70 YouTube videos since May on his Shameless Sperg account, whose graphic design elements feature stylized SS bolts. Titles of his videos – generally a recording of him delivering his views direct to camera – include: “Why I Dislike Jews. It’s not complicated”, “Black Crimes Matter: Never Relax” and “Jews and FBI hate you and your free speech”. Typically the videos attract hundreds of comments from like-minded YouTube users. His channel has seen such remarkable success that it has drawn apparently baseless allegations from other far-right creators that he is a “fed”. On an X account that frequently advertises his videos, his posts include antisemitic comments and in one response to a post about actor Jim Carrey he writes: “All of them deserve rope. I advocate for national socialism though, under which idiots like this would not fare too well.” Despite YouTube’s stated policies against hate speech and content that promotes violence against individuals or groups based on race, religion or other protected characteristics, Booth’s channel appears to be monetized through the YouTube Partner Program. The channel displays ads and Booth has thanked subscribers for their financial support through the platform.
via guardian: Unmasked: the man behind one of the fastest growing far-right YouTube channels