YouTubers are earning up to £20,000 a month by making provocative videos that have targeted a Norfolk hotel used to house asylum seekers.
Hotels up and down the country are regularly targeted by content creators known as ‘auditors’. One such site is the Brook Hotel in Bowthorpe, which has racked up hundreds of thousands of views in monetised streams.
There are dozens of videos uploaded to the site recorded at the hotel, many gaining between 50,000 to 200,000 views. It is thought some of these content creators are generating a monthly income of between £10,000 to £20,000 through the footage shared to sites such as YouTube and TikTok.
Hypocrisy exposed
Often calling themselves ‘citizen journalists’, these individuals claim to be protecting communities. But their motivations are far from noble.
One of the most prominent YouTubers, Anthony Styles, 59, has since deleted his AJ Audits channel after it was revealed he is a convicted paedophile. He was known to frequent protests held in Norwich and Bowthorpe, where demonstrators claimed to stand for the “protection of women and children”.
The Brook Hotel under siege
AY Audits, a channel believed to be run by a man named Anthony Barnes, is one of the most popular YouTubers making these sorts of videos. He visited the Brook Hotel five months ago, creating two videos lasting for about an hour, which garnered a combined 439,173 views.
During the footage, he attempts to gain entry into the venue, provoking security staff until they are forced to call the police, with officers then threatening to arrest him if he does not leave the site.
His channel’s views have risen from 1 million in May to 29 million by September, during which he has travelled across the country to asylum seeker hotels and anti-migrant protests.
According to an investigation by Channel 4, his earnings could be between £10,000 to £20,000 a month, generated through advertising revenue. Companies whose adverts were shown on his videos include EasyJet and Ocado.
A growing phenomenon
So-called auditors are becoming a growing phenomenon on social media sites and creators are gaining thousands of followers. They film themselves attending public spaces or venues of interest, capturing interactions with police, fire crews or security staff.
A channel called Bare Britain Audits, which describes itself as being run by a “citizen journalist”, has amassed 31,965,000 views on YouTube, which includes some filmed outside the Brook Hotel. One of its videos has gained 76,000 views, posted last month, and features 1 hour and 40 minutes of footage taken during the tail end of a protest. In the video, people can be heard making disparaging comments about police officers and the people staying inside the hotel.
Another channel, MitchMedia, has posted a video, taken five months ago, of a man harassing security staff until he was eventually arrested by police.
Elsewhere in the country, footage has emerged of people breaking into rooms where asylum seekers are staying. Live streams of people shining torches and laser pens at asylum seekers walking around outside the Brook Hotel have also appeared on TikTok in recent weeks.
Real-world consequences
Perhaps in response to the frequent visits by auditors, the owners of the hotel have now erected metal security fencing around the site and security staff are checking proof of residence before letting people inside the gates.
There are growing concerns that auditors may be looking for content that will stir division and may encourage real-life violence.
Dr William Allchorn, senior researcher at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, told Channel 4: “The more provocative they are on their platform, they are going to have more views. With these views comes monetisation from ad revenue and donors.”
Profiting from misery
These so-called ‘auditors’ are not citizen journalists. By harassing migrants, provoking confrontations with staff, and turning human misery into monetised entertainment, they are exploiting both vulnerable people and local communities. As long as social media platforms reward provocation with profit, Norfolk – and towns like it across the country – risk becoming battlegrounds for content creators chasing their next viral clip.
This article is a modified version of one by Local Democracy Reporting.
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