Nasim Najafi Aghdam was an Iranian-American YouTuber who became the subject of international headlines following an attack on the YouTube headquarters in 2018.
Aghdam was born on April 5, 1979, in Urmia, Iran. She immigrated to the United States with her family in 1996 when she was approximately 16 years old. Most of her adult life was spent in Southern California, particularly in San Diego and Riverside County, where she lived with her grandmother.
Known for her eclectic interests, Aghdam was a dedicated vegan activist, animal rights supporter, and bodybuilder. She was a member of the Baháʼí Faith and often linked her dietary choices to her religious and ethical beliefs.
Aghdam was a prolific creator across several platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, and Telegram. She operated under the name "Nasime Sabz" (Green Breeze) and produced content in English, Farsi, and Turkish. Her digital footprint was characterized by her stance on animal rights as well as videos ranging from fitness tutorials and vegan cooking to bizarre parodies and performance art.
The defining conflict of her life was her escalating resentment toward YouTube. Starting around 2016, Aghdam began publicly accusing the platform of censorship and discrimination. YouTube was filtering her content to reduce her view counts and intentionally stopping her from earning ad revenue. She was particularly angered when one of her workout videos was age-restricted, which she viewed as a targeted attempt to suppress her message. On her personal website, she wrote extensively about the lack of "free speech" in the real world and expressed a deep sense of injustice regarding how digital platforms were managed.
In the days leading up to the attack, she was reported missing by her family, who warned police she was "angry" with YouTube. She was found by officers sleeping in her car in Mountain View the morning before the shooting, but they did not deem her a threat at the time.
On April 3, 2018, Aghdam traveled to the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. At approximately 12:46 p.m., she entered the campus through an exterior parking garage and opened fire on an outdoor patio with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. She wounded three people before taking her own life. Authorities later confirmed that her motive was purely retaliatory against the company's policies, as she had no personal connection to the individuals she shot.
