Research/Study
Google’s ad network is driving and monetizing traffic to the fringe video-sharing platform Rumble
Rumble is a safe haven for QAnon-supporting shows, election deniers, and other far-right extremists banned from mainstream platforms
Published
Fringe video-sharing platform Rumble has risen to prominence in right-wing media circles by attracting far-right content creators pushing extremism, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. A new analysis has found that despite Rumble’s extremism, Google’s ad network is driving traffic — and new users — to the platform, while also monetizing some of its traffic.
Launched in 2013, Rumble has cast itself as a conservative alternative to Google-owned YouTube and gained the financial backing of prominent conservatives, including billionaire Peter Thiel, Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance, and Fox News host Dan Bongino. The platform, which has been described by founder Chris Pavlovski as providing infrastructure that is “immune from cancel culture,” has become a home for users who have been convinced by right-wing politicians and media personalities that they are being unfairly targeted and censored on Facebook, even though such claims have been repeatedly debunked.
A new analysis of the platform by Media Matters has found that Rumble is hosting scores of far-right pundits who have been banned from mainstream platforms, including Bongino, former Trump aide Steve Bannon, white nationalist Stew Peters, and bigoted social media influencer Andrew Tate. Rumble also hosts state-run media outlet RT earning millions of views livestreaming Russian propaganda, QAnon-supporting shows with over 1.7 million combined subscribers, election deniers who push conspiracy theories to millions of subscribers, and accounts that earn millions of views on videos with COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation.