Russell Brand asks fans to pay £48 after major YouTube financial loss
Russell Brand returned to live streaming on Rumble earlier this evening following the Metropolitan Police releasing a statement regarding news reports about the comedian.
During the live broadcast, Brand encouraged his fans to sign up for a paid subscription on Rumble, following the comedian's earnings being suspended on YouTube last week.
The Metropolitan Police has today said it has received "a number of allegations of sexual assault in London" and elsewhere following news reports about Brand. Brand has strongly denied accusations made by four women in an investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
In a short statement, the force said it had since received a "number of allegations of sexual offences in London" as well as elsewhere in the country. The police added that all allegations were non-recent and there have been no arrests.
Taking to Rumble just after 5pm, shortly after the police update, Brand hosted his live show, with today's instalment titled: "ARE WE BEING SILENCED!? The Battle For Free Speech! Plus, Jimmy Dore - Stay Free #209." Within the broadcast, Brand discussed Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Covid-19 and the Online Safety Bill.
Jake Paul calls on John Fury to make retirement bet for fight with son Tommy
Russell Brand speaking to Rumble viewers during his address this evening (Rumble)Speaking to over 70,000 viewers on Rumble this evening, Brand said at one point: "The global media war against free speech is in full swing, how do I know? Take a guess. Today, of course, we’re talking about events of the last week but, in particular, the collusion between big tech and government and an apparent concerted effort by legacy media and now the state and big tech to silence independent media voices. Obviously, it’s difficult for me to be entirely objective given the events of the past week but that’s what we’ll try to do."
During his broadcast tonight (September 25), Brand also encouraged his fans to donate and sign up to Rumble, with subscribers paying a minimum of $60 (£48) a year to subscribe to the comedian's channel. The broadcast follows YouTube suspending Brand from earning money on their platform last week.
In a statement on September 19, 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 Brand’s channel from the YouTube Partner Program "following serious allegations against the creator. This action means the channel is no longer able to monetise on YouTube". The decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by the 48-year-old, it added.
Prior to Dispatches airing on September 16, Brand vehemently denied 'criminal' and 'very serious' allegations he said had been put to him by two media outlets, describing it as a "coordinated attack". Addressing his millions of followers ahead of the Channel 4 broadcast, Brand said on September 15: "I've received two extremely disturbing letters or 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.
Brand denies the allegations made against him (Rumble)"But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, often 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've 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?"
Brand refrained from posting on social media following the Dispatches investigation airing on Channel 4 the following day notably not returning to YouTube or Rumble for his usual daily broadcast after his initial denial. He returned online on September 22 and spoke out about the claims made against him.
He told those viewing his video message: "Hello there you awakening wonders, obviously, it's been an extraordinary and distressing week and I thank you very much for your support and for questioning the information you've been presented with. By now, you're probably aware that the British government have asked big tech platforms to censor our online content.
"Some online platforms, have complied with that request. What you may not know is that this happens in the context of the Online Safety Bill – this is UK legislation that grants sweeping surveillance and censorship powers and is a law that has already been passed. I also don't imagine that you've heard of the trusted news initiative and now, as often is the case when a word like trusted is used as part of an acronym to describe an unelected body, trust is the last thing you should be offering. The trusted news initiative is a collaboration between big tech and legacy media organisations to target, patrol, choke and shut down independent media organisations like this one.
Tommy Fury 'moves out' of mansion shared with Molly-Mae ahead of Jake Paul fight
Brand continued: "We'll be talking about that on our show on Monday on Rumble but just to give you an idea on what the TNI is, this is a quote from one of their spokespeople," before the screen showed a message which read 'Because actually the real rivalry now is not between for example the BBC and CNN globally, it's actually between all trusted news providers and... digital platforms."
The comic added: "It's clear that these organisations collaborate in constructing narratives, whether that's around the war or the pandemic and of course, there are other examples. It's very clear to me that we have to be very, very cautious indeed – that's why I'm asking you to follow me on Rumble. Rumble have made a clear commitment to free speech, Rumble is the primary platform that we will be streaming from. We'll be back, this Monday and as usual, we'll be talking about deep state and corporate conclusion and how ordinary democracy is shut down, ignored and avoided. We'll be talking a military-industrial complex, these are able to facilitate and start wars that seem little more to be money laundering operations and that's with all respect to the hundreds of thousands of victims of numerous ongoing wars in the world at the moment. We'll be talking about the role of big pharma and how big pharma have been able to influence government policy around the world and how they've been able to evade due liability and necessary scrutiny, how they've been able to avoid media investigation or perhaps, be due them.
"And of course, we'll be talking about media corruption and censorship, so please, follow me on Rumble because that's the only way that we can keep our voice. I need your support now more than ever, more than I ever imagined I would. So follow me, support our channel if you can, if its within your means but more important than any of that, is that you please, if you can, stay free."
If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
