Rumble

About

Rumble is an internet video-hosting and streaming platform first launched in 2013 by Chris Pavlovski as an alternative to YouTube. The platform is prominently used among many American conservative and right-wing users, with creators such as Andrew Tate, LeafyIsHere and Sean Hannity gathering large followings on the site over the years. Rumble experienced a large influx of usage during the COVID-19 pandemic and has steadily been gathering users since.

History

On October 30th, 2013, Canadian tech entrepreneur Chris Pavlovski launched Rumble as an alternative for smaller independent YouTube creators. The platform initially started out primarily hosting news clippings and viral videos but received increased attention from conservative right-wing users after the year 2019 due to an influx of content creators who were unhappy with YouTube, banned or unable to find an audience on more mainstream video platforms.^[1]

Features

Rumble is a video-sharing platform similar to YouTube or Vimeo. The website's home layout displays various recommended video tiles and shows featured channels on a bar to the left. The website also has an "Earnings" tab that allows users to generate revenue from their videos. User-uploaded videos are licensed to Rumble's partners such as Yahoo! and Microsoft News, and the earnings made from this licensing are granted to the user directly.^[2]

Rumble's policies outline the site's restrictions on pornography, harassment, racism, antisemitism, copywriter infringement and illegal content.^[3] Rumble's official corporate website also contained a quote from Pavlovski in which he said the website is "immune to cancel culture."^[14]

Traffic

As of August 2022, Rumble reported 78 million monthly active users.^[12] The Rumble app's downloads spiked after Andrew Tate joined the platform later that month after being banned from various other social media websites.^[13]

Online Presence

Prevalence Among Conservative Creators

Some early adopters of Rumble before the year 2022 include Dan Bongino,^[4] various anti-vaxers banned from YouTube,^[5] and Dinesh D’Souza.

On February 20th, 2021, Twitter^[6] user @DonaldJTrumpJr posted a tweet that read, "Free-speech is fundamentally American, yet because of Big Tech we are losing it rapidly. Algorithms designed to crush the voice conservatives sounds more like China than America. / Check out my video content on Rumble where a level playing field exists!" The post gathered over 20,000 likes in two years (seen below, left). On June 4th, 2021, Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA posted a tweet^[8] about Rumble, gathering over 3,000 likes in two years (seen below).

In June 2021, Donal Trump announced his joining the platform, with his first video being a livestream of a rally in Ohio. The news prompted Parler founders to criticize Rumble for seemingly updating their terms of use to ban racism and antisemitism around the same time.^[7]

On August 25th, 2022, Rumble's official Twitter^[9] account posted a clip from a Tucker Carlson interview with Andrew Tate, in which Tate says, "This is just the beginning of a mass exodus." The tweet gathered over 9,000 likes in eight months (seen below).

“This is just the beginning of a mass exodus (to Rumble)” – Andrew Tate with Tucker Carlson pic.twitter.com/xeAvs1XOru

— Rumble – 🏴‍☠️ $RUM (@rumblevideo) August 26, 2022

On April 24th, 2023, former YouTuber LeafyIsHere posted a tweet^[10] linking to his Rumble account in a post that gathered over 4,000 likes in four days (seen below, left). Also on April 24th, Twitter^[11] user @itspatsworld posted a tweet calling for Tucker Carlson to move to Rumble, gathering over 4,000 likes in four days (seen below, right).

Criticism

An August 22nd Reuters article compared Rumble to its nearest competitors and noted that the platform had the most funding and use, ahead of Odysee and BitChute.The article also noted the widespread misinformation taking place on the platform.^[16]

According to NewsGuard, a media analytics platform that rates the credibility of news sites, almost half the search results on Rumble related to the 2022 election came from sources rated as "untrustworthy." NewsGuard also called the platform "hoax central."^[15]

Search Interest

External References