Holocaust denial, pro-Nazi, and white nationalist content on Rumble, exclusive livestream for November debate
A key partner in the upcoming Republican presidential debate is enabling and even peddling political extremism, false conspiracy theories and misogyny on its site, according to media and extremism watchers and an investigation of the content of the online video platform Rumble via The Guardian.
The Guardian’s investigation into Rumble has revealed dozens of accounts posting content that aggregates Holocaust denial, pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler advocacy, white nationalism, and content from banned creators like white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
The RNC announced last week that Rumble would be the exclusive live broadcast of the Miami event, which will feature Republican presidential candidates in addition to Donald Trump. The Republican Jewish Coalition is co-sponsoring the debate, while NBC will broadcast it on television.
While YouTube has taken steps, albeit unevenly, to exclude creators concerned about extremism, hate speech, or violence from its YouTube channels, Rumble has rarely done so, despite terms of service that seemingly prohibit “abusive, violence-inciting harassment, harmful messages, hateful, anti-Semitic, racist or threatening. “
“If you come to Rumble, you come for things that have been banned on other platforms,” said Megan Squire, deputy director of knowledge analytics and open source intelligence (Osint) at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Squire added: “Rumble provides a haven for extremists banned elsewhere. Squire said this is evident not only in the uploaded content he tolerates, but also in “the difference in how Rumble handles off-platform habits. “
This can be noticed in the remedy that the company gives to some of the platform’s biggest stars when they are accused of crimes.
Comedian Russell Brand left YouTube in 2022 after the platform unraveled and demonetized videos peddling Covid conspiracy theories.
In September, Rumble announced the platform and Brand had signed an exclusive deal to stream Brand’s daily display at Rumble. Last month, Brand charged through several women with misdemeanors, adding rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment. Brand denies the allegations.
When Rumble was later contacted by a U. K. parliamentary committee to raise concerns about Brand’s benefit from his content on Rumble, the company posted a reaction on X, formerly Twitter, saying that Rumble would “join a crowd of cancel culture. “
Meanwhile, Rumble has continued to promote the star’s feeds in its “editor’s pick” sections, helping make Brand’s channel the eighth most popular on the platform, according to analytics site RumbleStats.
Misogynistic “alpha male” influencer Andrew Tate also signed his own exclusive deals with Rumble and Gettr, other “alternative technologies” popular with the right. After catching Tate, who rose to fame on TikTok, the Rumble app has shortly become the most popular top download on the Apple and Google stores.
Tate was arrested by the Romanian government last December; In June, he was charged with rape and human trafficking and placed under space arrest until August. He is still awaiting trial. He denies any wrongdoing.
In January, reacting to CNN’s questions about the Tate, Rumble condemned human trafficking and abuse and also said he would “not prejudge” the investigation.
The company has continued to feature Tate in its select feeds, and according to RumbleStats, his TateSpeech channel is the fourth most followed and the third most watched on the platform.
Far-right figures also appear in the editors’ picks section.
In recent days, the organized broadcast has touted Laura Loomer, a largely distorted Trump colleague whom the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called an “anti-Muslim bigot”; and Pete Santilli, a conspiracy theorist. Speaking at a recent presentation about conservative broadcaster and fellow Rumble star Ben Shapiro, Santilli threatened to “punch him in the kippah” and described him as a “satanic Jew. “
Major Rumble channels are governed by Magaverse personalities: according to RumbleStats, Turning Point USA president Charlie Kirk is number nine with 1. 29 million followers; Donald Trump Jr. , No. 8 with 1. 26 million, is again overshadowed by his father, whose channel is No. 2 with 2. 06 million followers.
In the most sensible spot on the tree is conservative broadcaster and Rumble investor Dan Bongino, with 2. 79 million followers. Bongino is also the lead investor in Rumble, along with conservative broadcaster Dave Rubin and Narya Capital, whose partners include right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel. and Ohio Sen. J. D. Vance.
However, Rumble users don’t want to go beyond big-name signings and conservative media stalwarts to find more excessive content, such as that of the Stew Peters network, lately the 21st most followed account on Rumble according to RumbleStats, with 546,000. . Subscribers.
During the Covid pandemic, Peters gained notoriety in far-right circles through conspiracy theories about the origins of the pandemic, public conditioning measures, and vaccines.
In addition to those conspiracy theories on his podcast, Peters produced a 2022 documentary, Died Suddenly, which falsely claimed that mRNA vaccines cause blood clots and death in healthy people; A sequel published this year falsely claimed that vaccines were “bioweapons” incorporating RNA-modifying “transhumanist” nanotechnology evolved through “global elites” to permanently fit humans.
Both documentaries portrayed the pandemic, vaccines, and the public backlash over fitness as a conspiracy hatched by a hard-to-understand elite that included billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is the target of secret or explicitly anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Both premiered on Rumble, where Died Suddenly has been viewed 19 million times, according to the platform’s view count.
In his other posts, Peters aligned himself with various other far-right causes, espousing vehemently anti-LGBTQ views.
Peters has shown a growing propensity for anti-Semitic rhetoric and has hosted prominent anti-Semites such as traditionalist Catholic and podcaster E Michael Jones.
On a September episode of The Stew Peters Show, which will air on the Rumble, Jones told Peters that the events of the Holocaust had created a “Jewish privilege” that civil rights groups like the ADL did not criticize. Last week, in a discussion on during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which was also featured at Rumble, Jones claimed that Benjamin Netanyahu and media personalities such as Ben Shapiro “played the Holocaust card” by discussing the Hamas attack, because “the Holocaust is a license to break the law. “The Holocaust means that Jews are above the law. “
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Last Thursday on The Alex Jones Show, another widely banned show on major platforms that is not yet available on Rumble, Peters himself appeared to echo anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In a verbal exchange with Jones about the events unfolding in Gaza, Peters said in a critique of Israel: “This Zionism thing: Khazaria is not Israel. . . This secular geographical region created through Eastern European Bolsheviks who are not Jewish. . . it is not the Israel of the Bible. “
This appears to be an anti-Semitic recitation of the Khazarian hypothesis. The American Jewish Committee (AJC) explains that “anti-Semites are pushing the conspiracy that Ashkenazi Jews—Jews of Eastern European descent—are not ‘real Jews’ and “are racing to infiltrate other nations in their quest for global domination. “
The AJC adds, “The Khazar trope is used to undermine the Jewish connection to Israel and thus Israel’s right to exist. “
The Guardian sent a detailed request for comment to Rumble, asking for comment on all aspects of this report. The initial reaction from the Rumble Press focused on the Stew Peters channel. Rumble Press noted its terms of service, but added: “The creators of the Rumble interview visitors with a wide variety of opinions, as did news organizations (ABC interviewed bin Laden in 1998). Note that you have an account on X/Twitter and its content. It can also be found on YouTube with similar themes.
However, it turns out that Jones has his own “official” channel on the site. Many of his recent videos advertise his ebook The Holocaust Narrative, an ebook that the ADL says shows Jones’ evolution “from his long-standing position that the Holocaust was a justified reaction. “from Jewish custom to open denial of the Holocaust. “
The Guardian gave Rumble several examples of Jones videos on its platform that gave the impression of having an interaction in Holocaust denial and asked if they violated the terms.
Rumble Press responded, “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. This has already been removed. “
When asked if the channel had been removed or if Peters’ videos with Jones would be, Rumble asked The Guardian to identify any other “specific content that violates our policies; provide URLs and timestamps. “
The Guardian reached out to the debate’s co-sponsors, the Republican Jewish Coalition, for comment on the anti-Semitic fabrics at Rumble but did not hear back. An NBC spokesman declined to comment.
Further afield, Rumble hosts even more over-the-top hardware. Last month, Media Matters for America (MMFA) indexed a number of creators with a history of anti-Semitism whose content they said had been streamed through the Rumble. In an August article, the MMFA highlighted pro-Hitler content about which advertisements had been shown.
An account with 26,000 fans posted from other places, combining all of those tracks.
The platform and its owners did not have this right-wing orientation: for the first decade of its existence, it had no express political identity.
Rumble was founded in Canada in 2013 through Chris Pavlovski, who remains the company’s CEO and remains the company’s largest shareholder. Pavlovski is said to have founded Rumble, his second attempt at creating a video platform, to help small creators he thought YouTube neglected. Monetize your viral videos.
For several years, the platform was only a small player in the online video sector and dominated, as it does now, through YouTube.
At the time, YouTube and other platforms had tightened their moderation policies to stamp out conspiracy theories that had led to violence, adding QAnon and Pizzagate.
Devin Nunes, then a pro-Trump congressman and now chief executive of the Trump Media and Technology Group, which runs the Truth Social platform, created a Rumble account that year, thinking it was hidden on YouTube to search for results.
Figures like Bongino, the conservative broadcaster, and Nunes began championing Rumble as an option for “big tech” platforms in early 2021. In May of that year, a fundraiser led by Peter Thiel raised an amount that has never been made public.
In 2022, the company opened a U. S. headquarters next to its original Toronto location; raised $100 million in an initial public offering (IPO); And he continued to recruit primary influencers. These were more commonly from the political right, politically ambiguous figures such as Glenn Greenwald also getting exclusive deals.
While Rumble is one of the most successful examples of “alternative tech” platforms, in terms of traffic, active users, and creators, it’s small compared to its main competitor, YouTube.
Nandini Jammi, co-founder of the Check My Ads Institute, which campaigns against misinformation by highlighting online advertising corporations than platforms like Rumble, said Rumble “doesn’t have mass appeal” and caters to a “small, relatively small demographic. “”undesirable to advertisers. “
Squire, the SPLC researcher, says Rumble is possibly hopeful that the exclusive deal with the RNC will turn the tide.
Referencing Pew Center studies indicating that only 20% of Americans had heard of the site, Squire said Rumble hopes it will “drive traffic to your site and familiarize the audience with your service, your brand,” adding, “That’s the case this will be the case. It’s a win for them as long as their generation can cope with the traffic.