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Russell Brand has suggested he is moving permanently to Rumble after he was demonetised on YouTube.
The comedian, 48, admitted it has been a “distressing week” after making headlines and he has urged fans to follow him on the streaming platform.
Speaking via his YouTube channel, he began: “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 that you have been presented with.
“By now, you’re probably aware that the British government has asked big tech platforms to censor our online content and that 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 which is a piece of UK legislation that grants sweeping surveillance and censorship powers and it’s a law that’s 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.”
Brand went on to tell his supporters he will now be broadcasting from his page on Rumble as he urged others to “stay free”.
Last weekend, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches published their bombshell investigation detailing allegations from four women who came forward with claims about incidents taking place between 2006 and 2013.
One of the women alleged the comedian raped her against a wall in his Los Angeles home in 2012.
A second accused him of assaulting her when he was 31 and she was 16 and still at school.
A third alleges sexual assault in Los Angeles and a fourth described being sexually assaulted by the star, and him being “physically and emotionally abusive” towards her.
In a pre-emptive video shared on YouTube before the exposé was published, Russell denied all accusations made against him and slammed them as “aggressive attacks”.
He admitted to being “very promiscuous” but said all his relationships were “consensual” and that he “refutes these very serious allegations”.
In the statement, he said: “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. 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.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s said that the allegations made against Russell are “very serious and concerning”.
His spokesman said in a statement: “As the Foreign Secretary said over the weekend, people should feel able to raise concerns where they have them and know they will be treated seriously and treated with sensitivity.
“The Prime Minister has been clear there should never be any space for harassment, regardless of where it is found.”
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed it is “aware” of the accusations and encouraged anyone who believes they have been a victim of sexual assault to come forward.
Channel 4 and production company Banijay UK, which produced Big Brother and its spin-offs, have both launched investigations. The BBC also said it was “urgently looking into the issues raised”.
