Mass-casualty events cause immense trauma to victims, families, and the wider community. During these moments, platforms have a responsibility to prevent the exploitation or sensationalisation of violence for personal gain.  

Mass-casualty events are not content opportunities.  

Regardless of political views or audience size, livestreaming during violent tragedies while encouraging subscriptions or channel growth crosses an ethical line.

During the horrific mass shooting at Bondi last night, while most were shocked and mourning, Drew Pavlou was running a livestream of the tragedy on his YouTube account, aiming to profit from the event. This exploitation of a national tragedy for personal financial gain is not just morally reprehensible but highlights a recurring problem with his platform.

Drew Pavlou’s channel demonstrates a recurring pattern of race-based commentary that has been widely criticised as misleading and socially harmful. Rather than encouraging understanding, the content often relies on provocation and division to drive engagement.

Monetising this material on a public platform rewards and amplifies content that exacerbates social tensions, giving harmful narratives greater reach and legitimacy, with real consequences for social harmony and community safety.

YouTube, as a global platform, carries a responsibility to uphold its community standards by ensuring that monetised content promotes accuracy and respectful engagement. Permitting the monetisation of channels such as Drew Pavlou’s weakens these standards by rewarding content that contributes to social harm, thereby amplifying its reach and potential real-world consequences.

YouTube is not just a hosting platform, it is a powerful economic engine that determines which voices are amplified through monetisation. When inflammatory or divisive content is rewarded with advertising revenue, it creates incentives to escalate controversy, exploit social tensions, and profit from moments of public harm. Demonetisation is a proportionate and established mechanism that allows YouTube to uphold its community standards without restricting speech. This campaign calls for a formal review to ensure YouTube’s monetisation systems do not reward content that contributes to social harm or undermines community trust.

Demonitising Drew Pavlou’s channel would allow YouTube to take a principled stance against the monetisation of inflammatory and divisive content. It would reinforce that leveraging social tragedies or racial tensions to drive engagement and revenue is incompatible with the platform’s stated values and responsibilities.

We urge YouTube to immediately review Drew Pavlou’s channel and to take appropriate action, including demonetisation. Upholding standards of truth, respect, and social responsibility is essential to maintaining community trust and the integrity of the platform. We call on YouTube to act now to ensure its monetisation systems do not reward harmful or divisive content.

Sign this petition to urge YouTube to demonetize Drew Pavlou and hold content creators accountable for their actions.