Major advertisers, including Burger King, Asos, and HelloFresh, have pulled their advertising budgets from Rumble following the allegations of sexual assault against comedian Russell Brand.
The brands pulled their adverts from the platform, where Brand has amassed a following of 1.4m,
News Movement reported that Burger King said it had paused advertising with the platform, while Asos said it had manually removed its ads from Rumble.
Meanwhile, other big brands, including Apple and Amazon Music, continue to hold space on their site, the Daily Mail reports.
Russell Brand is also being attacked on all fronts, but mainly against his ability to make money as after the recent spate of advertisers pulled on the plug on Rumble.
As the Daily Fetched reported earlier this year, video-sharing giant YouTube has demonetized Russell Brand’s videos on his channel following sexual assault allegations against the comedian.
“We have suspended monetization on Russell Brand’s channel for violating our creator responsibility policy,” the platform announced Tuesday.
“If a creator’s off-platform behavior harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community.”
YouTube said it suspended Brand’s channel from the YouTube Partner Program “following serious allegations against the creator. This action means the channel is no longer able to monetize on YouTube.”
Russell Brand’s YouTube channel currently has 6.6 million followers.
Brand faces accusations from four women of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse.
According to a joint investigation by newspapers The Sunday Times, The Times, and TV show Dispatches, women alleged Brand sexually assaulted them between 2006 and 2013
Brand has denied the allegations, saying in a video posted on Friday on X, formerly Twitter, that his relationships have been “always consensual.
Watch
This is happening pic.twitter.com/N8zIKLbJN2
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) September 15, 2023
Earlier this week, the UK parliament asked Rumble why they have not demonetized the comedian’s channel.
Watch
This morning I set out @commonsCMS ’s next steps on culture and safeguarding in the media, following this weekend’s allegations against Russell Brand pic.twitter.com/EnumXFqLzL
— Caroline Dinenage (@cj_dinenage) September 19, 2023
British Member of Parliament, Dame Caroline Dinenage, wrote to Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski asking whether he would suspend monetization of Brand’s account, noting that Brand had posted his pre-emptive message regarding the allegations.
Attached is the letter from the UK Parliament. pic.twitter.com/MdeYrlt06J
— Rumble – 🏴☠️ $RUM (@rumblevideo) September 20, 2023
The following line from the letter is pretty chilling:
“While we recognise that Rumble is not the creator of the content published by Mr Brand, we are concerned that he may be able to profit from his content on the platform.”
The government appears to be trying to prevent Brand from having the ability to pay for attorneys for his defense.
Rumble published their reply on Twitter/X, reminding Dame Dinenage that they are not in the United Kingdom and do things a little differently in the United States.
Rumble's response to the UK Parliament's letter to our CEO @chrispavlovski pic.twitter.com/iSCpHIHoU4
— Rumble – 🏴☠️ $RUM (@rumblevideo) September 20, 2023
Meanwhile, London’s Metropolitan Police Service said it was investigating a report of an alleged sexual assault against Brand.
“We continue to encourage anyone who believes they may have been a victim of a sexual offence, no matter how long ago it was, to contact us,” the department said.
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