Johnny Somali

Ramsey Khalid Ismael (born September 26, 2000), popularly known by his alias Johnny Somali, is a Somali American live-streamer.

Early life

Ismael was born in Phoenix, Arizona to a Somali father and an Ethiopian Jewish (Beta Israel) mother. Ismael says that he was a Somali child soldier. 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.

Career

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. He began streaming in May 2023. After being banned from Twitch, he moved to Kick before receiving temporary suspensions from Kick. He was banned on Kick in May 2024 and attempted to persuade Twitch into unbanning him, he currently streams on Rumble.

In May 2024, Ismael threatened to sue the YouTuber PewDiePie after PewDiePie stated that Ismael "ruined Japan" and called Ismael a "fucking idiot", with this, Ismael stated that PewDiePie was racist against black people and an antisemite. The reason for this was claim of racism was because PewDiePie called Johnny Somali a terrorist in the video in which he talked about him. In the video that PewDiePie released, he talked about how many of these influencers and foreigners in Japan are making Japan worse and saying that the troll content that is being produced for "hate clicks" is a bad way to be a streamer.

Controversies

Japan incidents

During his travels to Japan, Ismael made anti-Japanese taunts towards the Japanese people there, which include comments about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and threats of bombing Japan with nuclear weapons while he was on a train. Several times after these comments, he was assaulted and called racial slurs by some locals who recognized him in public. During this, he was confronted by an American streamer who threatened to fight him after Ismael was making jokes about the bombings which then Ismael stated that he was just a troll and didn't mean harm. Though the American streamer later apologized for his actions and claimed he was drunk, he was praised by many people on the internet. Ismael has also harassed fellow Twitch streamers by shouting obscenities at them, and example would be the Japanese Twitch streamer Meowku where he harassed her until he left with a taxi driver which contributed to his ban reasons.

In June 2023, Ismael went to the Tokyo Disney Resort and played music with lyrics containing the phrase "atomic bomb" and recorded guests' reactions without their permission.

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. 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. He stated 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".

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. The charge of trespassing on a construction site was dropped. Prosecutors requested a fine of ¥200,000. Ismael later admitted to lying to in court to the judge and prosecutor, claiming that he made no money from his videos. 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. In March 2024, Ismael stopped doing IRL Streaming and instead opted for "Zoom trolling", mostly targeting Zoom calls involving Japanese people.

Israeli incidents

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. As a result of his IRL stream, Ismael was suspended from Kick for a week due to inciting and promoting violent behavior.

On April 7, 2024, Ismael was reportedly attacked and detained at a protest in Tel Aviv, Israel for disrespecting 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. On April 9, it was reported that he was arrested for his disrespecting act on the female policer officer on April 7 for calling the female officer vulgar names like "bitch" and stating that he will "slap that ass" as he was also stating that he was from the United States as an excuse for his actions, stating "I'm from America, bitch". He is waiting a hearing ahead of his deportation from Israel.

Due to his actions and recent arrests in Israel, Ismael received a ban from Jerusalem for 50 days. One of the reasons for this is when he went to the Western Wall in Jerusalem in which he claimed that he's Jewish and that Jeffery Epstein and Harvey Weinstein was of his "top Jews" and insulted Adin Ross.

On May 19, 2024, Ismael was assaulted in Israel after being accused of snitching. One of the men was seen holding an item, possibly a weapon, but Ismael wasn't assaulted with it.

See also

• Fidias Panayiotou

Notes

References