Honest Trailers founder fired following sexual abuse allegations

The creator of the popular web series Honest Trailers has been fired following several accusations of sexual abuse against women.

Defy Media, parent company of the Screen Junkies YouTube channel which airs the series, announced on 9 October that Andy Signore’s contract has been terminated. “There is simply no justification for this egregious and intolerable behaviour,” the company said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The accusations were made public on 5 October following a Twitter post by Emma Bowers, who was an intern for Screen Junkies in 2010. Bowers claims that, while working with him, Signore had sexually propositioned her and made inappropriate sexual comments to her.

On 6 October, two other women made accusations of sexual misconduct against Signore. April Dawn said in a statement on Twitter that Signore had tried to sexually assault her on multiple occasions, and had threatened to fire her boyfriend, an engineer at Screen Junkies, if she spoke out. Dawn says that she and an unidentified woman had contacted the company’s HR department about Signore’s behaviour two months ago, but her claims were not taken seriously. “All they’ve done is protect him,” she wrote. A third woman, Devin Murphy, has claimed that Signore had made sexual overtures towards her and tried to meet her on several occasions.

Defy Media said it was first made aware of accusations against Signore in August and began an internal investigation. “On Friday, new information became available and the scope and magnitude of his inappropriate actions became apparent. We are acting swiftly to address the concerns of the people affected, and that going forward, our community is free of harassment or discrimination of any kind,” it said in a statement. “Our Screen Junkies colleagues and freelancers are a team of remarkable creators serving loyal fans and we will support and protect them. If anyone else is aware of behaviour of this type, we would encourage them to bring it to our attention.”

The film industry is contending with other claims of sexual misconduct. Hours before Signore was fired, the Weinstein Company announced that it had terminated the employment of Harvey Weinstein after additional allegations about inappropriate behaviour by the film producer were made. Weinstein had been on a voluntary leave of absence after a New York Times investigation accused him of multiple counts of sexual harassment against women. Saying “I own my mistakes,” Weinstein has also said he regrets his behaviour towards women going back decades, but his lawyers say he also denies many of the allegations made against him.

Film websites in particular have been beset by allegations of abuse against employees. In September, Harry Knowles, founder of the film website Ain’t It Cool News, announced that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the site after he was accused of improper conduct. Knowles “categorically” denies the allegations. In August, Cinefamily’s board launched an independent investigation into allegations of sexual assault by two executives, who have since resigned (both executives deny the allegations); last month the website set up a hotline for people with information relevant to the investigation.

Meanwhile, in October 2016 Devin Faraci resigned as editor-in-chief of the website Birth.Movies.Death following allegations of sexual assault against him. The accusations against Faraci resurfaced last month when it emerged that he had resumed working at the Alamo Drafthouse cinema chain, which owns the website. Faraci left the company for a second time shortly after.

Signore co-founded Screen Junkies in 2011 and launched Honest Trailers a year later. The series, which mockingly deconstructs popular movie franchises, is hugely popular, with its YouTube page amassing more than 157m views.

The Guardian is trying to reach Signore for comment.