In the latest instance of anti-free speech cancel culture, several companies have pulled their advertising from Rumble for its refusal to buckle to censorship pressure.
The anti-free speech left frequently uses financial or government pressure to demand censorship of individuals or content, even resorting to canceling shows, products or people by cutting off advertising funds. Burger King, HelloFresh, Asos and The Barbican are the latest to do just that.
The four companies withdrew ads from pro-free speech video platform Rumble when the latter refused to demonetize Russell Brand over as-yet unsubstantiated allegations of sexual misconduct. The group The News Movement, which is tied to a group funded by climate activist James Murdoch, was behind the advertising pressure, Reclaim the Net reported on Sept. 23.
The Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon explained the difference between consumers boycotting companies and companies or government officials exerting pressure to cancel opponents in an X (formerly Twitter) post. “I didn't see conservatives calling on stores and venues to stop carrying Bud Light. They just stopped buying it,” Dillon posted on Sept. 21. “They applied market pressure, but they didn't cancel anything. It's like the difference between changing the channel when a show you don't like comes on and calling the advertisers/network to try and get the show taken off the air entirely.”
The News Movement (TNM) contacted numerous companies regarding their ads being shown on Brand‘s channel, although some companies (including eBay, Hilton and Ralph Lauren) did not respond to the group, Reclaim the Net noted. Rumble previously slammed the “cancel culture mob” ordering Brand’s demonetization.
TMN describes itself as “the leader of a new system of content creation and storytelling,” helping “fight misinformation.” The term “misinformation” is frequently used as an excuse for censoring content with which an entity disagrees. TMN lists tech giant Amazon, The Associated Press and media company Brut as partners. Leftist climate activist James Murdoch previously helped raise $75 million for Brut.
YouTube demonetized Brand quickly after the allegations first began to circulate in the media, allegations which Brand denies. UK Member of Parliament Caroline Dinenage also reached out to tech companies, particularly Rumble, to urge them into demonetizing Brand. It was later reported that Dinenage previously received a donation in kind from YouTube’s parent company Google.
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