Introduction
Matan Uziel (Hebrew: מתן עוזיאל; born 21 April 1985) is an Israeli journalist, filmmaker and a former modeling agent who represented Yves Saint Laurent's muse Maayan Keret among other fashion models. Founder of Real Women Real Stories.
Discovery of Elsagate videos (2017–present)
November 2017
In November 22, BuzzFeed News published an article about unsettling videos that depict children in disturbing and abusive situations. The information on the article came with the assistance of Matan Uziel whose investigation and report to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on that matter were sent on September 22, informing its leadership about "tens of thousands of videos available on YouTube that we know are crafted to serve as eye candy for perverted, creepy adults, online predators to indulge in their child fantasies."
In November 27, YouTube announced in a statement to BuzzFeed News that it had "terminated more than 270 accounts and removed over 150,000 videos", "turned off comments on more than 625,000 videos targeted by child predators" and "removed ads from nearly 2 million videos and over 50,000 channels masquerading as family-friendly content".
Uziel is a vocal proponent of the Censorship of YouTube and gave numerous interviews about YouTube's removal of content that "might be sensitive, but serves a public good."
Roman Polanski libel case
In December 2017, Polanski filed a ₪1.5 million suit in Herzliya Magistrates' Court against Matan Uziel. Polanski maintained that Uziel, through his website, www.imetpolanski.com, falsely reported that five women had come forward to accuse him of raping them. Polanski was suing for libel and defamation of character. Herzliya Magistrates' Court rejected Polanski's request to be exempt from appearing in court after filing the libel suit.
While Polanski gave various reasons for his inability to appear, the presiding judge, Gilad Hess, dismissed these one by one and ordered Polanski to pay Uziel ₪10,000 in costs. In November 2018, it was published that Polanski decided to drop the lawsuit, and was ordered by the court to pay Uziel ₪30,000 (US$8,000) for court costs. The court accepted Uziel's request that the suit not be dropped, but rather that it be rejected, making Polanski unable to sue Uziel again over the same issue in the future.
Real Women Real Stories
Founded by Uziel in March 8, 2016, Real Women Real Stories is an international collection of filmed testimonies of women around the world, who submit, share and discuss different contents and topics. Through these documentaries, Uziel's Real Women Real Stories intends to bring viewers face to face with different subjects and enable women raise their voice on what they feel needs attention. Since its launch, the project has been featured internationally to great acclaim. The project features Kate del Castillo, Bree Olson, Kiran Chetry, Esther de Jong, Vanessa Noel, Hoda Ali, Khoudia Diop, Shandra Woworuntu, Amy Paulin, Brooke Axtell, Nikki DuBose, Leah Vincent, Charlotte Lewis.
Activism
Matan Uziel previously served as an ambassador for the National Eating Disorders Association. During his tenure, he created a Change.org petition against Spreadshirt, accusing the e-commerce company for selling shirts that appeared to glamorize eating disorders.
In August 2017, Uziel started a petition calling for convicted child rapist and former priest Paul Shanley to live in a treatment facility where he will have no access to children. As of August 5, 2017, more than 15,000 people had signed the petition, which also called for Shanley’s whereabouts to be monitored with a GPS bracelet.
More than a decade ago, a video appeared on the web in which Mexican actress Michelle Vieth appeared naked, a situation that she still considers heartbreaking and difficult to overcome. In July 2017, Vieth contacted Uziel, who helped her to remove the content from the internet.
In August 2019, Uziel and its organization Real Women Real Stories discovered that shirts bearing iconic photographs of the Holocaust of a man being shot to death while perched over a mass grave are sold on Amazon UK. The items in question featured an infamous photograph known as The Last Jew in Vinnitsa. Uziel forwarded the information to Israel's Channel 2 and following the channel's inquiry, Amazon has removed the items, however, it was reported that other controversial items are still available on Amazon.
Personal life
Matan Uziel is Jewish and has two sisters. He is the grandson of Moshe Gueron.