Rumble, the video-sharing platform where Russell Brand has 1.4 million followers, may not be a household name but it has grown in popularity – especially among those from the right and “alt-right” – as a place said to be “immune to cancel culture”.

Rumble is backed by the billionaire and prominent conservative venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who invested in 2021, and the conservative former Fox News presenter Dan Bongino, who has 2.9 million subscribers himself. The platform is valued at more than $2bn (£1.6bn).

Alongside Brand, who regularly posts conspiracy theories and critiques of mainstream media, is Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, who was an early adopter of the app, and Andrew Tate, known for his misogynistic views. Tate has 1.6 million followers. Trump joined Rumble after he was blocked by other platforms, and now has 2 million followers, while his son Donald Jr this year announced an exclusive partnership with the platform, where he will host a biweekly livestream show called Triggered with Don Jr. The platform is also used by Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist, who has defended Brand and was last year ordered to pay £1.2bn in damages to families of the Sandy Hook school shooting after falsely claiming the attack was a hoax.

Nic Newman, of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, said: “The specific gap that Rumble fills has been a growth business fuelled by Covid vaccine conspiracies and misinformation. It is no coincidence that the big growth in the user base came between 2020 and 2021.