Right-wing “free speech” streaming site and YouTube knockoff Rumble is profiting from advertisements running before videos featuring white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
Fuentes has been a featured guest on a handful of episodes of Fresh & Fit, a men’s lifestyle and dating advice show that has lately embraced extreme antisemitism.
Fresh & Fit was recently removed from YouTube’s Partner Program, which allows creators to profit from advertising on their videos. During an announcement about their removal from YouTube’s program, the hosts begged viewers to support them on Rumble instead. Their video was the second most-liked video on the platform for August 18.
Fresh & Fit’s pivot to Rumble demonstrates the function of the platform for far-right influencers: When content creators are booted from other outlets because of hate speech violations or breaking community guidelines, Rumble acts as a landing pad for them to continue pushing hate and misinformation.
Rumble currently profits off of advertisements that run on Fresh & Fit videos, including episodes that feature Fuentes.
Two Fresh & Fit videos featuring Fuentes have over 1 million views on Rumble, and Fuentes has gloated about his impact on the show’s viewership.
Additionally, Rumble is profiting off of advertisements running on Fresh & Fit’s antisemitic content. Here are a few examples:
During one of the streams, host Myron Gaines (real name Amrou Fudl) bragged, “We’re the biggest platform that’s talking about the JQ. No one else will do it.” (“JQ” refers to the “Jewish Question,” an antisemitic framework meant to question the human rights of Jewish people that provided the pretext for the Holocaust’s “Final Solution.”)
During one of the podcast’s panel discussions, Gaines praised and defended Adolf Hitler.
“Though he did things that were morally incorrect, he definitely did a bunch of things correct for his country,” Gaines said. “That’s a fact.”
The two hosts sometimes play a cash register sound effect when talking about Jewish people on their show, a familiar antisemitic gag among other manosphere influencers.
Additionally, Gaines dressed up as a stereotypical caricature of a Jewish person during one of his livestreams with Fuentes.
The Rumble logo can be seen during most of these antisemitic acts and comments.
Rumble has a strained relationship with Fuentes. The website previously removed an antisemitic speech from Fuentes calling for a “holy war” against Jewish people, which the platform labeled as “incitement to violence.” Fuentes was suspended from posting on Rumble for two weeks following the video’s removal. He currently has roughly 34,000 followers on the platform.
Rumble has previously profited off of pre-roll advertisements on various videos from QAnon conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, and other extremists.
