Inside alt video platform Rumble backing Russell Brand where star shares ‘conspiracy theories’ to millions of followers | The Sun

ALT video platform Rumble has backed Russell Brand after he used the site to share "conspiracy theories" to millions of followers.

Dan Bongino, one of the largest financial backers of the site, urged viewers to take to Rumble after a probe by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.

Four women have accused Brand of rape and sexual assault in the period between 2006 and 2013 – at the height of his career.

Brand has denied any accusations of wrongdoing.

He's been posting daily episodes of his Stay Free programme on Rumble since signing a deal with the site a year ago.

Industry sources claim the deal was likely to be highly lucrative.

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It comes as YouTube demonetised his videos and BBC removed his content from its iPlayer and Sounds sites.

Mr Bongoni has urged his Twitter/X followers to watch Brand's videos on Rumble.

He wrote: “Join Rumble today,” he said. “Russell is already there.”

The site was founded in 2013 by Chris Pavlovski, a Canadian entrepreneur, as an alternative for independent creators who he felt were being ignored on mainstream platforms.

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It recorded 533 million visits between June and last month.

Creators using the site include Donald Trump and the US-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones – who's been ordered to may £1.2billion in damages to families of the Sandy Hook school shooting victims.

He'd falsely claimed the attack was a hoax.

Brand has risen to the site's fifth most popular contributor after posting rants about Covid lockdowns, vaccines, central bank’s digital currencies and the West’s role in the Ukraine war.

Meanwhile, Brand's business empire is in tatters.

He and his wife Laura rushed to strike off their joint company Brand New Collective Ltd on September 12, days before the abuse allegations were made public, according to Companies House records.

Brand has also closed off his pub The Crown Inn in Pishill, Oxfordshire, which he owns with Laura, having fencing installed and hiring security guards, locals claimed on Monday morning.

He has also been terminated as director of movie company Mayfair Film Partnership Limited – worth £729,700 – and resigned as director of One Arm Bandit Limited – worth £61,031 – which is described as providing "support activities to performing arts".

Brand has vehemently denied the accusations – and took to YouTube to do so before they were made public.

He told his 6.6million subscribers that while he was "promiscuous" all his relationships were consensual.

The video sharing giant suspended the monetisation of the 48-year-old's channel for “violating our Creator Responsibility policy”.

In a statement, YouTube said: "We have suspended monetisation on Russell Brand's channel for violating our Creator Responsibility policy.

"If a creator's off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community."

The company said that it had suspended the channel from the YouTube Partner Program "following serious allegations against the creator".

It continued: "This action means the channel is no longer able to monetise on YouTube."

The ban applied to all channels that may be owned or operated by the 48-year-old, it added.

Sara McCorquodale, the chief executive of the social media analysis agency CORQ, said Brand’s YouTube channel would have been raking in a decent sum.

She told the Guardian: “He is most likely making £2,000 to £4,000 per video, not taking into account any affiliate deals and brand sponsorships that might be running in the background."

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If he were to make five videos a week, every week, this would see him make around £1million a year.

Sun Online has contacted Rumble for comment.

Russell Brand’s denial in full

Hello there, you awakening wonders.

Now this isn't the usual type of video we make on this channel where we critique, attack and undermine the news in all its corruption because in this story I am the news.

I have received two extremely disturbing letters – well a letter and an email.

One from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks as well as some pretty stupid stuff – like my community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn't be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel.

But amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque, attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute. These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream – when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies, and as I have written about extensively in my books I was very very promiscuous

Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent. And I'm being transparent about it now as well. 

And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question is there another agenda at play?

Particularly when we have seen coordinated media attacks before – like with Joe Rogan when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn't approve of and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language.

I’m aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while ‘Watch out Russell, they are coming for you, you are getting too close to the truth, Russell Brand did not kill himself’.

I know that a year ago there was a spate of articles ‘Russell Brand is a conspiracy theorist, Russell Brand’s right wing’.

I’m aware of news media making phone calls, sending letters to people I know for ages and ages.

It’s been clear to me or at least it feels to me like there's a serious and concerted agenda to control these kind of spaces and these kind of voices and I mean my voice along with your voice.

I don't mind them using my books and my stand up to talk about my promiscuous consensual conduct in the past. What I seriously refute are these very very serious criminal allegations. 

Also it’s worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narratives that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct apparently in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack

Now I don't want to get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations, but I feel like I'm being attacked and plainly they are working very closely together

We are obviously going to look into this matter because it’s very, very serious. In the meantime I want you to stay close, stay awake but more important than any of that if you can, please, stay free.

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