Matan Uziel

Matan Uziel (Hebrew: מתן עוזיאל‎; born 21 April 1985) is an Israeli investigative journalist, producer, filmmaker and a former modeling agent who represented Yves Saint Laurent's muse Maayan Keret among other fashion models.[1][2] He is also the founder of the Real Women Real Stories channel on YouTube.[3][4][5][6]

Matan Uziel
Uziel in February, 2014
Born
Matan Uziel

(1985-04-21) 21 April 1985
Beersheba, Israel
NationalityIsraeli
OccupationInvestigative journalist, filmmaker, founder of Real Women Real Stories
RelativesMoshe Gueron (grandfather)

Discovery of Elsagate videos (2017–present)

November 2017

On 22 November, BuzzFeed News published an article about unsettling videos that depict children in disturbing and abusive situations. The information on the article came with the assistance of Matan Uziel whose investigation and report to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on that matter were sent on 22 September, informing its leadership about "tens of thousands of videos available on YouTube that we know are crafted to serve as eye candy for perverted, creepy adults, online predators to indulge in their child fantasies."[7] On 27 November, YouTube announced in a statement to BuzzFeed News that it had "terminated more than 270 accounts and removed over 150,000 videos", "turned off comments on more than 625,000 videos targeted by child predators" and "removed ads from nearly 2 million videos and over 50,000 channels masquerading as family-friendly content".[8]

Uziel is a vocal proponent of the censorship of YouTube and gave numerous interviews[9][10][11][12][13] about YouTube's removal of content that "might be sensitive, but serves a public good."[14]

Roman Polanski libel case

In December 2017, Roman Polanski filed a ₪1.5 million suit in Herzliya Magistrates' Court against Matan Uziel.[15] Polanski maintained that Uziel, through his website, www.imetpolanski.com, falsely reported that five women had come forward to accuse him of raping them. Polanski was suing for libel and defamation of character. Herzliya Magistrates' Court rejected Polanski's request to be exempt from appearing in court after filing the libel suit.[16]

While Polanski gave various reasons for his inability to appear, the presiding judge, Gilad Hess, dismissed these one by one and ordered Polanski to pay Uziel ₪10,000 in costs.[17] In November 2018, it was published that Polanski decided to drop the lawsuit, and was ordered by the court to pay Uziel ₪30,000 (US$8,000) for court costs. The court accepted Uziel's request that the suit not be dropped, but rather that it be rejected, making Polanski unable to sue Uziel again over the same issue in the future.[18]

In late December 2019, in Polanski's interviews with Paris Match[19] and Gazeta Wyborcza,[20] Polanski accused Uziel of carefully orchestrating the attacks on his character and for playing a major role in designing an international campaign to besmirch his name and reputation in order to make his career fall from grace.[21]

Real Women Real Stories

Founded by Uziel on 8 March 2016,[22] Real Women Real Stories is an international collection of filmed testimonies of women around the world, who submit, share and discuss different contents and topics. Through these documentaries, Uziel's Real Women Real Stories intends to bring viewers face-to-face with different subjects and enable women raise their voice on what they feel needs attention. Since its launch, the project has been featured internationally to great acclaim.[23][24][25][26][27][28] The project features Kate del Castillo, Bree Olson, Kiran Chetry, Esther de Jong, Vanessa Noel, Hoda Ali, Khoudia Diop, Shandra Woworuntu, Amy Paulin, Brooke Axtell, Nikki DuBose, Leah Vincent, and Charlotte Lewis.[29][30][31][32][33][34]

Activism

Matan Uziel previously served as an ambassador for the National Eating Disorders Association.[35][36][37] During his tenure, he created a Change.org petition against Spreadshirt, accusing the e-commerce company for selling shirts that appeared to glamorize eating disorders.[38][39]

In August 2017, Uziel started a petition calling for convicted child rapist and former priest Paul Shanley to live in a treatment facility where he will have no access to children.[40] As of 5 August 2017, more than 15,000 people had signed the petition, which also called for Shanley's whereabouts to be monitored with a GPS bracelet.[41]

More than a decade ago, a video appeared on the web in which Mexican actress Michelle Vieth appeared naked, a situation that she still considers heartbreaking and difficult to overcome.[42] In July 2017, Vieth contacted Uziel, who helped her to remove the content from the internet.[43]

On 16 February 2018, Katinka Hosszú, a Hungarian three-time Olympic champion and a nine-time long-course world champion, filed for divorce from Shane Tusup. On 25 May 2018, Hosszú's Facebook page was deleted by Tusup, who was the sole administrator of the page. However, on 6 June 2018, Hosszú regained access to her Facebook and then Instagram page with the assistance of Uziel.[44]

In August 2019, Uziel and its organization Real Women Real Stories discovered that shirts bearing iconic photographs of the Holocaust of a man being shot to death while perched over a mass grave are sold on Amazon UK.[45] The items in question featured an infamous photograph known as The Last Jew in Vinnitsa.[46] Uziel forwarded the information to Israel's Channel 2 and following the channel's inquiry, Amazon has removed the items,[47] however, it was reported that other controversial items are still available on Amazon.

Personal life

Matan Uziel is Jewish and has two sisters. He is the grandson of Moshe Gueron.

References
  1. "Fashion muse and icon Maayan Keret is making her return to the fashion world". Fault-Magazine.com. 27 July 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  2. "Maayan Keret: Transcending Fleeting Trends". TheFashionBirdCage.com. 24 November 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  3. "The 'demonetized': YouTube's brand-safety crackdown has collateral damage". Digiday. 6 September 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  4. "'I can't trust YouTube any more': creators speak out in Google advertising row". The Guardian. 21 March 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  5. "YouTube loses major advertisers over offensive content". New York Post. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  6. "Online Video Producers Caught In Struggle Between Advertisers And YouTube". NPR. 14 April 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  7. Warzel, Charlie (22 November 2017). "YouTube Is Addressing Its Massive Child Exploitation Problem". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  8. YouTube Has Deleted Hundreds Of Thousands Of Disturbing Kids' Videos, BuzzFeed, 28 November 2017
  9. "Casey Neistat y otras figuras de YouTube que se rebelan contra la política de publicidad de la plataforma de videos de Google". BBC. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  10. "Online Video Producers Caught In Struggle Between Advertisers And YouTube". WXXI. 14 April 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  11. "The 'demonetized': YouTube's brand-safety crackdown has collateral damage". Digiday. 6 September 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  12. "'I can't trust YouTube any more': creators speak out in Google advertising row". The Guardian. 21 March 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  13. "YouTube loses major advertisers over offensive content". New York Post. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  14. "YouTube's Ad Problems Finally Blow Up In Google's Face". Wired.com. 25 March 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  15. Spiro, Amy (6 December 2017). "Roman Polanski Files Nis 1.5m. Libel Suit Against Israeli Man". Jerusalem Post. Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Post Group. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  16. "Director Roman Polanski ordered to testify in suit against Israeli blogger". Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  17. Spiro, Amy (24 January 2018). "Herzliya Court: Roman Polanski Must Appear In Person At Trial". Jerusalem Post. Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Post Group. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  18. "Judge orders Roman Polanski to pay court costs to Israeli journalist after withdrawing libel suit". haaretz.com. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  19. "Exclusif - Roman Polanski : "On essaie de faire de moi un monstre"". parismatch.com. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  20. "Roman Polański do Michnika i Kurskiego: Czego ode mnie chcecie? Cokolwiek powiem, będzie jeszcze gorzej". wyborcza.pl. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  21. "Polański tłumaczy się na łamach "Wyborczej", "Wysokie Obcasy" wydają oświadczenie". onet.pl. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  22. "Bree Olson Bravely Slammed The Porn Star Stigma". ATTN. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  23. "Woman Forced Into Orgy By Mom Became Child Sex Slave". Elite Daily. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  24. "'I was sold into child sex slavery by my mother. I was just six-years-old.'". Mamamia. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  25. "This Former Porn Star Tearfully Describes How Hard Her Life Has Been Since She Retired". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  26. "Logan Paul's video of a suicide victim puts YouTube's glaring hypocrisy about demonetization on display". HelloGiggles. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  27. "Bree Olson describes hardships after leaving adult film industry". CNN.com. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  28. "Model Zuzanna Buchwald Speaks Out About The Pressure To Stay Sample-Sized". Refinery29. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  29. "Model Developed Anorexia and Bulimia After Agents Told Her to Stop Eating: 'The Illness Changed My Relationship with Food Forever'". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  30. "Kate Del Castillo Relives Domestic Violence: Actress Recalls Luis García Abuse On 'Real Women Real Stories' [VIDEO]". Latin Times. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  31. "I was raped but never spoke about it – until one day at work". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  32. "Our porn double standard: Bree Olson slut-shamed after leaving adult industry while James Deen gets more work than ever". Salon.com. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  33. "Model Zuzanna Buchwald Reveals Her Agent Told Her To 'Stop Eating'". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  34. "Charlotte Lewis oskarża Romana Polańskiego o gwałt". Interia Kobieta. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  35. "Alluringly Anorexic T-Shirts 'Raising Awareness of Eating Disorders' Pulled from Spreadshirt". International Business Times. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  36. "These Pro-Eating Disorder T-Shirts Sold At Spreadshirt.com Have Spawned An Online Petition". Bustle. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  37. "NEDA NYC Benefit Dinner" (PDF). National Eating Disorders Association. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  38. "Are These T-Shirts Pro-Eating Disorder?". Refinery29. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  39. "T-Shirt Company Under Fire For Selling Pro-Eating Disorder Merchandise". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  40. "13K Want Newton Priest Paul Shanley In Secure Treatment Facility". Patch.com. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  41. "Thousands sign petition calling for Shanley to live in treatment facility". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  42. Michelle Vieth Slams Hector Soberón For Leaking Porn Video
  43. Tras video porno, Michelle Vieth ahora lucha contra el contenido sexual no autorizado
  44. "Hosszú Katinka hat számra nevezett be" (in Hungarian). Zoom. 5 June 2018.
  45. Anti-Semitic shirt on sale on Amazon
  46. Amazon UK removes from sale items of clothing featuring infamous Holocaust picture
  47. Amazon removes shirts with notorious photo of Nazi executing Jew
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