Research/Study
Rumble is still rife with racist, antisemitic, and violent rhetoric — even after it removed Nick Fuentes’ antisemitic rally
Fuentes claims Rumble “reassured” him that his account “is safe and won't be deleted”
Written by Natalie Mathes
Published
Content warning: This article contains numerous examples of bigoted and violent rhetoric.
Rumble, the extreme right-wing video-sharing platform and chosen streaming partner of the Republican National Committee, reportedly removed videos of white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ recent rally because it considered his rhetoric to be an “incitement to violence” — but the platform remains rife with videos pushing similarly racist, antisemitic, and violent rhetoric.
On July 16, Fuentes livestreamed a rally on Rumble during which he launched into overt antisemitism, ranting about a supposed “Jewish stranglehold” over the United States and claiming of his perceived opponents, “We will make them die in the holy war.”
According to Fuentes, Rumble removed two videos of the rally and suspended him from streaming on the platform for two weeks because it considered his “holy war” rhetoric an “incitement to violence.” He later revealed that he’d spoken to Rumble, which he said “reassured us that my account is safe and won't be deleted. … They have no plans to ban me.”
Even though Rumble removed Fuentes’ rally videos — and the platform has policies against “racism, anti-semitism and hatred,” as well as content that “promotes, supports, or incites violence” — the site is ultimately a dumping ground for right-wing fearmongering, falsehoods, and bigotry.
For months, the platform has allowed, and even promoted and profited from, videos that fearmonger about war, seemingly call for violence, and contain extreme, racist, and antisemitic rhetoric.
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Rumble has allowed Fuentes and other misogynistic figures to push extreme, racist, and antisemitic rhetoric on the platform for months
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Fuentes regularly expresses contempt for nonwhite, non-Catholic Americans in his videos, and in a June 19 video, Fuentes denounced various civil rights efforts as about “the third world recolonization of America.” Fuentes, who has been livestreaming and uploading videos to Rumble since at least March 2021 and currently has at least 31,500 followers, complained, “I’m sick of hearing about this Black minority in America, because that’s what they are. They were a cheap labor source when the country was founded. They were slaves. And then from the time they were freed until now they’ve been a small, you can call it racial but really it’s sort of like an ethnic thing, there are — you have white Americans and Black Americans. And they have been an ethnic enclave minority ever since.”
He continued: “This is a European, historically European, white, Christian, Western nation, and all of this Black independence day, Black national anthem, Black pride flag, BLM, all that is about, is about the third world recolonization of America. It’s about basically undoing European settlement, reclaiming America for the third world, the so-called indigenous, the brown people, and their drums and their other things, that’s what this is about. Their tribal garb, and their wooden flutes, … their wooden masks, … their pyramids, and their bows and arrows and spears. That’s all this is about."
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In a July 1 video, Fuentes claimed that Muslims, Black people, and Arabs are genetically “incompatible” with the American system, which is “based on who we are as whites.” Fuentes ranted, “It’s always Blacks that are doing the crime, it’s always Blacks that are running from the cops, it’s always Blacks that are then being gunned down by the cops, and then it’s always Blacks that are blowing up the city, in the name of justice, but then looting liquor stores and phone stores and grocery stores and so on. … And it’s the same thing that you see in France. This is a third world problem; these are third world people, bringing third world behaviors, causing third world problems.”
He continued: “You could say, oh, well, surprise, surprise. It’s more of the same. It's these Muslims, it’s these Blacks, it’s these Arabs, it’s whatever. But at the end of the day, we have a system that is based on who we are as whites. These people are incompatible with it. … It doesn’t work if you bring in millions of people that want to take bribes, and want to haggle, and they scream, and they honk their horns, and they go and get their swords, and they have blood feuds, and they’re raping everyone, it just doesn’t work. It doesn’t work."
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After Jordan Neely, a homeless man from New York City, was killed on the subway in May, Fuentes said, “A lot of George Floyds and Neelys are going to die before we’re going to have a civilization that our kids are going to be safe to live in.” In the May 5 livestream, which Fuentes titled “THANK YOU: Subway HERO Kills Marauding Vagabond In NYC, First Of Many!,” he also said, “People just have to develop a stomach for this sort of thing."
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During a July 29 video in which he defended Hitler and Stalin, Fuentes fantasized that “me and Hitler would team up” to “kill” a Black man he alleged had littered in his neighborhood. He also called on his followers “to prepare to catch an aggravated battery charge if you see this in your society.” Fuentes continued, “That guy should be dragged from his car and beaten to death by the public. And I’m supposed to be mad at Hitler because of some fantastical Hollywood story about a gas chamber that looks like a shower?” Fuentes posted this video to Rumble while still allegedly suspended from streaming on the platform for two weeks for violating its policy against content that “promotes, supports, or incites violence.”
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In several of his Rumble videos, Fuentes has complained that right-wing figures won’t blame Jews directly for supposedly “pushing LGBTQ” and “killing America.” In a June 19 video, Fuentes lamented, “It’s about wars. It’s about the government. Which is what they always say, right? Blame it on the CIA, blame it on the federal government, blame it on white men, white men that are left-wing Democrats. … Never blame it on the Mossad, never blame it on the state of Israel, never blame it on Zionist Jews that are all over conservative media and provide the funding for the Republican Party. Never blame it on world Jewry, which is organized in a variety of global federations, congresses … . Never blame it on them, never even mention them. Never even acknowledge that those things exist.
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On the misogynistic Fresh and Fit podcast, Fuentes said he doesn’t “believe in the Holocaust,” denied that 6 million Jews were killed in a network of death camps, and claimed that women are made to be “baby machines.” Fuentes has repeatedly been invited to appear on the right-wing dating podcast Fresh and Fit, including being featured in more than 11 hours of content between July 7 and 11, which were streamed on the podcast’s Rumble channel and collectively earned over 2.4 million views. During one of the streams, co-host Myron Gaines bragged, “We’re the biggest platform that’s talking about the JQ. No one else will do it.” The “JQ,” or the “Jewish Question,” is an antisemitic framework that posits the Jewish diaspora is a “problem that needed to be solved.” It provided a pretext for the Nazi government to undermine the freedoms of Jewish Germans, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. During another of these streams, Fuentes plainly stated, “I don’t believe in the Holocaust,” and then went on to deny that 6 million Jews were killed in a network of death camps, as well as claim that women are made to be “baby machines” because “that’s what their brains are about."
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As a guest on the Rumble channel of misogynistic streamer Sneako, Fuentes parroted the antisemitic propaganda of blood libel from the Middle Ages, accusing Jews of “communing with demons” and of “using Christian blood in their rituals.” Two videos from Sneako’s Rumble channel that featured Fuentes and others pushing racist and antisemitic rhetoric were removed by Rumble, but Fuentes subsequently reposted them to his channel. One of these videos is a six-hour livestream during which Gaines and Fuentes effectively denied that the Holocaust was a genocide and Fuentes falsely claimed that Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, is essentially “communing with demons,” adding that Jewish people in medieval Europe “were using Christian blood in their rituals.” Here, Fuentes was directly parroting the antisemitic propaganda of blood libel from the Middle Ages, false allegations, also used by the Nazis, that “Jews used the blood of non-Jewish, usually Christian children, for ritual purposes.” These false allegations led to terroristic violence against Jewish people throughout history.
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Misogynist Andrew Tate, an online personality who has been charged with rape and human trafficking and whom Rumble has repeatedly embraced and reportedly sponsored, and Tucker Carlson suggested that “there’s got to be some intent” behind “these two actions of neutering the native populace and importing these high-testosterone third-worlders.” During his recent interview with Tucker on Twitter host Tucker Carlson, which Tate shared to his Rumble channel, Carlson claimed that countries in Europe have been “completely changed by people from other countries” and that “in general, they're not better countries” because of immigration. Tate asked, “Is this purposeful? These two actions of neutering the native populace and importing these high-testosterone third-worlders are so at odds with each other.” Carlson responded, “They’re probably not happening by accident, right? There’s got to be some intent. How could there not be?” On Tate’s Rumble channel, the interview has since earned at least 1 million views.
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Tommy Sotomayor, a men’s rights activist who has appeared on former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke’s show, asserted that “the downfall of the Black race is the Black women” and that “if whites weren't superior to Blacks, Blacks wouldn't be walking around right now saying Black lives matter.” Sotomayor regularly livestreams on Rumble for hours at a time, often bashing Black women. During a four-hour July 12 livestream he titled “Black Women Are The Lowest Class Of Women On Earth! Here Is The Proof!” Sotomayor asserted that “the downfall of the Black race is the Black women” and that “Black women embarrass us way more than the Black men do.” During a five-hour July 23 livestream he titled “Can We Be Honest? The White Race Is Superior Over Blacks! Hear Me Out!” Sotomayor claimed that “if whites weren't superior to Blacks, Blacks wouldn't be walking around right now saying Black lives matter. Hands up, don't shoot. Please treat us equally. If whites weren't superior to Blacks, Blacks wouldn't have to do that.”
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Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, whose misogyny is well-documented, went on a racist diatribe about teaching American history on the June 16 edition of Alex Jones’ Infowars show, claiming, “We did not burn down Black Wall Street; your teacher is lying.” He went on, “There was a race riot that started after a justified arrest. Blacks started shooting, whites started shooting. A massive riot broke out and they brought in the National Guard to try to stop it. Yes, buildings were burned; that’s because there were snipers on the roof. You explain that Emmett Till was guilty. You explain that we didn’t take the land from the Indians. … You’ve got to tell them that their teachers were lying."
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Right-wing pundit Steven Crowder fearmongered that “if you see a Black American, there's a 50-50 shot that they don't know if they think you have the right to exist,” and mocked the NAACP for issuing a travel advisory warning Black people about risks to their safety in the state of Florida. Crowder, whose extensive racism, antisemitism, disdain for women, and violent rhetoric are also well-documented, regularly pushes bigotry on his Rumble Exclusives show to an audience of over 1.37 million followers. During a March 22 livestream, Crowder fearmongered that “if you see a Black American, there's a 50-50 shot that they don't know if they think you have the right to exist.” Meanwhile, during a May 22 livestream, while mocking the NAACP for issuing a travel advisory warning Black people about risks to their safety in the state of Florida, Crowder said, “By the way, slavery still goes on in Africa. Far as us stripping them of African culture, it is true a few of them came here and said, where can I get some of those lip spacers? Anyone know where I can get some neck extenders?”
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Rumble has also promoted and profited from videos that fearmonger about war and seemingly call for violence
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Monetized clips of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon calling for a “holy war against the deep state” have proliferated across the platform, featuring ads from major advertisers such as Uniqlo, Chevrolet, Shopify, Tempur-Pedic, PlutoTV, Fisker, and Grainger. During Bannon’s July 16 speech at the Turning Point Action conference, which was held the same weekend as Fuentes’ antisemitic rally, Bannon said, “We need to be focused right now on the election apparatuses in Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, and to get behind Donald Trump and get serious about taking this country back. This is a crusade. This is a holy war against the deep state. Donald Trump is our instrument for retribution.” He went on, “Come on — you guys are unruly. You should be unruly. Gen. MacArthur said you're not going to be remembered for the rules you didn't break, right? This is a crusade, a jihad, a holy war against the deep state and the administrative state.”
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Right Side Broadcasting Network, a right-wing outlet that produces exclusive content for Rumble, also uploaded a video of Bannon’s full July 16 speech calling for a holy war, during which he also threatened that once Trump is back in office, they’ll “have an altar call” for members of the “deep state.” He said, “The number one enemy of this country, of freedom and liberty, is the administrative and the deep state. And on the afternoon — they have to understand something. We're going to hit you with a blow torch, OK? No more games. We're going to hit you with a blow torch. … We're not just going to change policy, we’re going to start by bottom-blowing personnel. And for every person in there, every person in there today, you've got time enough to come forward as a whistleblower, talk about what happened to the children, talk about what happened on the assassinations, talk about taking the liberties of your fellow citizens. If you don't come forward by high noon on the 20th of January, you're guilty! You're guilty! You're nothing more than the Gestapo, you're nothing more than the SS, and you are guilty! Come forward now! We'll have an altar call. Come down here and tell us exactly what went on."
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During the 2022 midterms, Bannon called armed, camouflaged extremists staking out ballot drop boxes in Arizona “concerned Americans that understand there was a lot of problems in 2020” in a video streamed on Rumble. Bannon celebrated and defended these armed poll watchers, claiming that they created a “deterrence” for nonexistent ballot-harvesting “mules.” He said, “These mules — hey, what you guys have done is deterrence. A mule would understand, ‘Hey, these people are gonna have the hairy eyeball on me.’”
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Right-wing outlet LFA TV produces Rumble videos that are saturated with religious rhetoric and fearmonger about war, including threatening violence in several instances and claiming that we are already “in a civil holy war” in at least one instance. In the May 4, 2022, episode of Live From America, host Jeremy Herrell lamented that he doesn’t “have a militia,” encouraged his audience to “rise up” and “start organizing” a “well-formulated militia,” and stressed that “the holy civil war is here right now.” This year, during the July 9 episode, Herrell predicted that if Trump were to “die in prison … we would literally rip this country to shreds and be in an all-out civil war, worse than the first one.” In the July 19 episode, Herrell preached, “This is a moment that our forefathers knew would come. So they gave you every tool that you would need in these times. … We got the word. We got the freedom to speak. We got the loud voices. We got the platforms to do it. And we got the Second Amendment. Who’s with me? Can I get an amen? I’m not afraid. I’m ready to go. Tyranny is here. It’s time for war.” Rumble has promoted videos from LFA TV on its leaderboard of most-liked videos at least 536 times since February. (Media Matters has tracked Rumble’s “Battle Leaderboard Top 50” — which is a prominently displayed ranking of the 50 most-liked videos from the previous 24 hours — since February 1.)
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Earlier this year, after Trump’s first indictment, Rumble promoted numerous videos from right-wing pundits and QAnon figures agitating for civil war on its leaderboard of most-liked videos. For example, a livestream of Charlie Kirk was ranked #12 on Rumble’s leaderboard on March 31. In it, he said, “We must make them pay a price and a penalty,” claiming Democrats “crossed the Rubicon” and have “declared quote-unquote the Roman Civil War.” A video of Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast was ranked #39 on Rumble’s leaderboard on April 1. In it, Bannon claimed that the “American version of the globalist elites have now gone to outright war with the populist nationalist movement,” to which QAnon sympathizer Lara Logan replied, “This is almost the moment that we've been waiting for,” adding that “things are escalating,” that we’re “heading to a breaking point,” and that “we are going to see a fight to the death.”
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In January, Trump lawyer Christina Bobb went on the program of white nationalist Stew Peters, which streams on Rumble, and told him that she’d like to see treason trials over the 2020 election. Peters asked Bobb, “You know that for treason, one of the, you know, potential punishments for that is death. Are we ever going to see, like, any trials for these people that, you know, these traitors that have stolen our country?” She replied: “I certainly hope we do" and said that Republicans need to organize for the 2024 elections.