Lauren Southern
Canadian alt-right political activist (born 1995) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Lauren Cherie Southern (born 16 June[4] 1995) is a Canadian alt-right[lower-alpha 1] YouTuber, political activist and commentator. In 2015, Southern ran as a Libertarian Party candidate in the Canadian federal election.[5] Southern worked for Rebel Media until March 2017, when she began to work independently.[2]
Lauren Southern | |||||||
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Born | Lauren Cherie Southern (1995-06-16) 16 June 1995 (age 28) Surrey, British Columbia, Canada | ||||||
Alma mater |
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Occupation | Political activist[1] | ||||||
Political party | Libertarian | ||||||
Children | 1[2] | ||||||
YouTube information | |||||||
Channel | |||||||
Years active | 2015–present | ||||||
Subscribers | 716,000[3] | ||||||
Total views | 63 million[3] | ||||||
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Last updated: June 11, 2023 | |||||||
Website | laurensouthern |
In May 2017, Southern supported Defend Europe in their efforts to obstruct search-and-rescue operations of refugees from North Africa in the Mediterranean Sea.[6] Southern was briefly detained by the Italian Coast Guard for blocking a ship embarking on a search-and-rescue mission.[6] Consequently, crowdfunding website Patreon removed her from the platform, accusing her of engaging in activity "likely to cause loss of life".[7] She was also demonetized by YouTube and banned from GoFundMe.[8][9]
Some academics and journalists have described Southern as a white nationalist for her promotion of the Great Replacement and white genocide conspiracy theories,[lower-alpha 2] though she has denied being a white nationalist.[2][10] Southern promoted the Great Replacement conspiracy theory via her YouTube video of the same name, released in July 2017;[11][12][13] the video was reported to have helped to promote the white nationalist viewpoint, having garnered over 600,000 views by March 2019.[11][14] She has been described as an advocate of the white genocide conspiracy theory for her documentary Farmlands (2018), in which she suggested the imminence of a race war in South Africa in response to South African farm attacks.[15][16][17][18]
In July 2018, she visited Australia for a speaking tour with Stefan Molyneux; that August, the pair were banned from speaking in New Zealand.[19] Southern announced her retirement from political activism on 2 June 2019, but returned to YouTube on 19 June 2020.[2][20][21] As of 2021, she is a contributor for Sky News Australia.[10] She has rejected the "far-right" label and said she is not a racist,[22] preferring to be described as a conservative.[23] In 2019, when making such denials to a journalist from The Times of London, Southern ended their "conversation by predicting a race war."[22]