I asked Gemini AI: “What is the best way to deal with CharlesVeitch on YouTube?”
Charles Veitch is a controversial British YouTuber who creates content by walking through city centres, filming the public, and frequently engaging in confrontations with passersby, security guards, and protesters. His content heavily relies on provoking reactions, which he then uploads for his audience. Recently, his activities have even led to legal trouble; in early 2026, he was charged with a public order offence and banned from entering Manchester City Centre.
Because his channel relies entirely on “drama” and agitation to generate views and ad revenue, the best way to deal with him—both online and in the real world—is to starve him of the attention and engagement he needs.
Here is the best way to handle him, depending on how you are interacting with his presence:
1. Dealing with his content on YouTube
If you are tired of seeing his videos or want to push back against his style of content, the YouTube algorithm is your main battleground.
- Do not click on his videos: Even a “hate watch” gives him a view, which boosts his channel in the YouTube algorithm and puts money in his pocket.
- Do not comment: Leaving a negative comment or arguing with his supporters in the comment section is still registered as “engagement” by YouTube. The algorithm rewards videos with high engagement by recommending them to more people.
- Block and remove from your feed: If his videos appear on your homepage, click the three dots (
...) next to the video title and select “Don’t recommend channel”. - Report TOS violations: If a specific video clearly crosses the line into targeted harassment, inciting violence, or doxing (revealing private information), use YouTube’s reporting tool to flag the video for violating Community Guidelines.
2. Dealing with him in real life
If you encounter Charles Veitch filming in your town or city, the most effective strategy is absolute disengagement.
- Ignore him completely: Do not look at the camera, do not answer his questions, and do not react to his provocations. His entire business model is based on getting people to stop, argue, or get angry. If you give him the silent treatment and walk right past him, your footage is completely useless to him because it is boring.
- Do not argue the law: Many people make the mistake of confronting him by saying “you don’t have my permission to film me.” Under UK law, individuals generally have the right to film in public spaces without consent. Arguing this point with him just gives him the exact legal debate he has rehearsed hundreds of times, resulting in prime footage for his channel.
- Do not get physical: Swiping at his camera or touching him is an easy way to get yourself arrested for assault. It also gives him the dramatic thumbnail and video title he wants.
- Call the police only if a crime is committed: Because he is legally allowed to film in public, the police generally will not remove him just for being annoying. However, if his behaviour crosses the line into a genuine public order offence (e.g., using threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour that causes harassment, alarm, or distress)—which is exactly what he was charged with in Manchester—you should calmly walk away and report the incident to the police.
Ultimately, public agitators treat anger and frustration as currency. Responding with total apathy is the single most effective way to shut them down.
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Controversial YouTuber Charlie Veitch charged with public order offence and banned from Manchester City Centre
Controversial YouTuber and self-styled citizen journalist Charlie Veitch, who regularly documents life in “dystopian” Manchester on the video sharing platform, has been charged with a public order offence and banned from entering Manchester City Centre.
A statement from Greater Manchester police said: “Following an investigation by our Manchester City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team, Charles Veitch (05/08/1980) of Park Crescent, Derbyshire, has been charged with a Section 4A public order offence. He is set to appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on 30 June 2026. Mr Veitch has bail conditions that include not entering Manchester city centre inside the ring road.”
Veitch first rose to prominence as a high-profile 9/11 conspiracy theorist in the mid-noughties, and later appeared in the 2011 BBC documentary 9/11: Conspiracy Road Trip. He publicly renounced his views after speaking with architects, engineers, and victims’ relatives for the BBC investigation, leading to backlash from other figures in the online conspiracy sphere such as Infowars host Alex Jones, who cited Veitch’s change of heart as evidence that he had been compromised by a “very evil New World Order”.
More recently, Veitch has used his YouTube channel, which has 833k subscribers, to document “Broken Britain” with a particular emphasis on Manchester, where he regularly singles out vulnerable people, including the homeless and drug addicts, for his content. He also frequently documents pro-Gaza protests, and in a 2024 clip attracted criticism for confronting a female member of staff in Manchester People’s History Museum over their decision to wear a Keffiyah – an interaction which many online viewers considered to be “clickbait” and “harrassment”.
Outside Manchester, he has also divided audiences by claiming on his shows that parts of Huddersfield have a “third World vibe,” describing Nelson, Lancashire as “rough” and home to “some of the most abandoned nice buildings I have seen on my tour of dystopian Britain” and Barnsley as “pure Soviet.”
Veitch was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to a Brazilian mother and a Scottish merchant seaman father. He attended Edinburgh Academy and graduated from the University of Edinburgh with honours in philosophy.
