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American live-streamer (born 2000) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ramsey Khalid Ismael (born September 26, 2000), popularly known by his alias Johnny Somali, is an American live streamer known for his provocative behavior while traveling overseas.[2]
 |
| Johnny Somali | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Personal information | |
| Born | Ramsey Khalid Ismael September 26, 2000 Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Subscribers | 18.4 thousand[1] (October 9, 2024 (before ban)) |
| Total views | 4.3 million[1] (October 9, 2024) |
| Website | youtube |
Kick information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2023–2024 |
| Followers | 13 thousand (Before ban) |
Last updated: October 2, 2024 | |
According to Ismael, he was born to a Somali father and an Ethiopian mother.[3] Ismael claimed to have been a Somali child soldier.[4] According to Ismael, he grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, and graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor of science degree in finance in May 2021.[5]
Ismael mostly streams himself on video streaming platforms such as YouTube and Kick as a tourist travelling in different countries, in particular Japan, Thailand and Israel.[6] He began streaming in May 2023. After being banned from Twitch, he moved to Kick before receiving temporary suspensions from Kick.[7] He was banned on Kick in May 2024 and unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Twitch into unbanning him. He currently streams on Rumble.[8]
During his travels to Japan, Ismael made anti-Japanese taunts towards locals,[9][10] which include comments about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki[11][12] and threatened to bomb Japan with nuclear weapons on a train. Ismael was occasionally assaulted and called racial slurs by locals who recognized him in public.[13][14] In one incident, he was confronted by an American man for his behavior, during Ismael stated that he was just a troll.[15] The American man was praised by many people on the internet for his actions, while Ismael claimed to have been drunk at the time and had apologized to the man.[16] Ismael harassed Meowku, a Japanese Twitch streamer, which contributed to Ismael's subsequent ban by Twitch.[17]
In June 2023, Ismael went to Tokyo Disney Resort and played music with lyrics containing the phrase "atomic bomb" and recorded guests' reactions without their permission.[18]
In August 2023, Ismael, who was masked, and Jeremiah Dwane Branch, who was recording for him went into a hotel construction site in Osaka, where he then yelled "Fukushima" at the construction workers. After the construction workers kicked them out, they were both arrested on suspicion of trespassing.[19][20][21] In September, they were arrested on the suspicion of conspiracy of obstruction of business when they disrupted a restaurant by playing extremely loud noises and music during business hours.[22][23] He claimed that the reason the music was playing was because of the phone producer, Huawei, who "put a Chinese virus on the phone". This was later brought up in court where the judge found him guilty and stated "he could've just turned down the volume on his phone".[24]
On December 19, 2023, Ismael, who had been in custody since his second arrest, appeared at the Osaka District Court of the charge of conspiracy of obstruction of business.[25] The charge of trespassing on a construction site was dropped. Prosecutors requested a fine of ¥200,000.[26] Ismael later admitted to lying in court to the judge and prosecutor, having previously claimed to have made no money from his videos.[27] A verdict of guilt was reached on January 10, 2024. He was fined ¥200,000 (the equivalent of $1,400) and voluntarily returned to the United States.[28] In March 2024, Ismael stopped livestreaming and instead opted for "Zoom trolling", mostly targeting Zoom calls involving Japanese people.[29]
On March 25, 2024, Ismael went to Tel Aviv, Israel, where he became involved in altercations with local Arab and Jewish people there. He was then confronted and beaten.[30][31] As a result of his stream, Ismael was suspended from Kick for a week due to inciting and promoting violent behavior.[32]
On April 5, 2024, he traveled to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, where he began live-streaming. He filmed himself attaching images of Harvey Weinstein, Adin Ross and Jeffrey Epstein to the wall, proclaiming Weinstein as one of his "top Jews" and making insulting remarks towards Ross. He was arrested and received a 50-day ban from Jerusalem.[33][34]
On April 7, 2024, Ismael was detained at a protest in Tel Aviv for sexual harassment of a female police officer. After his release 16 minutes later, Ismael went live again on the same day and claimed to have witnessed a mass shooting at a restaurant.[35] He also excused his actions for being an American citizen.[36] On May 19, 2024, Ismael was assaulted in Israel after being accused of "snitching".[37] One of the men was seen holding an item, possibly a weapon, but Ismael was not assaulted with it.[38]
While planning his visit to South Korea, on March 10, 2024, he threatened to slap a BTS member in a now-deleted Twitter post.[39] This came after a statement about going to Seoul, South Korea, the same week.[40]
On October 7, 2024, he kissed and performed lap dances on statues depicting comfort women, sex slaves for Japan during World War II. He also loudly played obscene noises on the subway, such as speeches by Kim Jong Un,[41] and was ejected from a bus after loudly playing North Korean music.[42][43] On October 17, he allegedly responded with violence at a convenience stall after staff stopped him from drinking alcohol.[44] On October 26, he was taken into police custody and disobeyed rules.[45] He later assaulted a woman by throwing an unknown liquid on her and smacking her camera out of her hand onto a nearby street.[46] On November 2, 2024, he was barred from leaving the country while being under probe for his earlier incidents.[44][47]
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