The second Republican presidential debate will be broadcast Wednesday on Fox Business Network and Univision, but the exclusive online livestream will take place on Rumble, an alternative video-sharing platform that has been criticized for allowing— and at times promoting — far-right extremism, bigotry, election disinformation and conspiracy theories.
By bringing viewers to Rumble to watch the GOP debate, as it did with the first one last month, the Republican National Committee is driving potential voters to a site crawling with content that flouts the rules of more mainstream ones such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Earlier this year, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said using Rumble instead of YouTube as its livestreaming partner was a decision aimed toward " getting away from Big Tech.”
Asked about the criticism against the platform, the RNC said in an emailed statement that “hate, bigotry and violence is unfortunately prevalent on every social media platform, and the RNC condemns it entirely, but the RNC does not manage content or pages outside of our own.”
Rumble, founded in 2013, prides itself on being “immune to cancel culture.” Its website says “everyone benefits when we have access to more ideas, diverse opinions, and dialogue.”
I knew it was Rumble before I even opened it.
What’s fun is Sam Seder suggested mirroring The Majority Report on Rumble to find out how much money they would make from angry conservatives hate-watching.
He absolutely should. After all they’re “anti-cancel culture”. So I’m sure they would love to have him on. And would not interfere in any way with rebroadcasting or monetization. Who’re we kidding. Of course they would find some way to manipulate and push against speech they don’t like. The people who cry about " cancel culture " the most. Are the ones that practice it the most. They just get incensed when they’re on the other end.
And I think we can all rest pretty sure that most monetization doesn’t come from advertising or views. But contracts pushed by wealthy investors with a particular interest in only pushing a few specific views. It’s a disinformation service and nothing more.