Tony Northrup is deleting critical comments under the Afghan Girl video

Just as I have suspected in my previous post Tony Northrup has started to delete critical comments under his Afghan Girl video and the follow up video where he attacked legendary photographer Steve McCurry. Below are screen grabs which I made before and after the purge, two from March 12 on top, and two from March 14 and March 16 below. You can see he deleted nearly 600 comments (probably more considering that new comments were added in this time) on the first video, and over 900 comments under the second video. Before all the Top Comments were critical of his opinion, now all the Top Comments are supportive of his opinion! Luckily I have saved a lot of original comments in my previous post titled Community's reaction to Tony Northrup's attack on Steve McCurry. Please check that post out to see the truth about how the community actually reacted, and share it, so that more people learn about the truth.

Original attack video
March 12: 2676 comments, 165430 views

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March 14: 2082 comments, 171285 views

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Follow-up video
March 12: 1976 comments, 68613 views

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March 16: 1029 comments, 79031 views

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Doubling down

Most commentators have called on Tony to delete the original video and apologize to Steve McCurry. Instead he's doubling down, deleting critical comments en masse, and he even posted another of his own comments and pinned it on top:

Here's the original pinned comment for the purpose of transparency:
Common misunderstandings I see in the comments: 1) Islam, which Muslims practice, does not require women to wear burqas. Sharbat Gula wears a burqa because she's Pashtun. Give it a Google to learn more. 2) I chose to make this a sponsored video so that we could donate more money to charity. Please give Squarespace your support because they give us great freedom to choose the topics of the videos they sponsor.

Deleting 600 comments and talking about transparency is very hypocritical. Secondly, she did not wear a burka at that time Steve McCurry photographed her. You got that wrong, own it. And we need another separate discussion about women and burkas, and why Tony is seemingly in favor of respecting that conservative tradition. Generally, I don't get why someone who wants to help the Afghan people needs to do it with a sponsor and with a very controversial video full of inaccurate claims about a legendary photographer?

Attacking Ted Forbes

Tony also went to leave a long comment under a video by fellow Youtuber Ted Forbes, who was critical of Tony and his method. He attacked Ted's integrity and again tried to justify his actions. Here's a screen grab of Tony's hyporitical comment:

I hope this fiasco will finally make people who love to watch photography Youtubers realize how dirty this business is. I hope this is the final straw, because what's happening right now for clicks and views is disgusting. Spread the word, share my post, people need to know the truth.

Please check these posts as well, if you're interested in this issue:

• If you are into photography, don't watch popular Youtubers
• Is a Youtuber defaming Steve McCurry and his Afghan Girl photo?
• Why you shouldn't trust "photography" channels like Tony Northrup