Major brands have pulled ads from Rumble, following the video platform’s refusal to censor or demonetize actor and podcast host Russell Brand over decade-old sexual assault allegations published this month in the U.K. media.
Notably, YouTube, to much criticism, has banned Brand from monetization on all of his accounts over the allegations, though Brand has no charges against him and has strongly denied ever engaging in nonconsensual sex. Rumble refused to follow suit.
According to News Movement, Burger King is one of the brands that has paused advertisements on Brand’s Rumble channel. “Burger King has paused all advertising on the channel while investigations into the allegations are ongoing,” the company said.
Meal-kit company HelloFresh has pulled ads from all of Rumble, it seems, telling News Movement when it reached out about the allegations, “Thanks for pointing this out to us. We have manually removed our ads from Rumble.”
And Fashion company ASOS pulled ads this week, the report noted.
The allegations against Brand surfaced from a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches. The alleged victims were reached out to by the media before detailing their accusations. So far, no charges have been filed against Brand, though London police have opened an investigation into a newly reported allegation from 20 years ago.
The media report said four women, whose names have not been disclosed, have accused Brand of sexual misconduct from 2006 to 2013, which was the height of Brand’s mainstream fame — when Brand worked for Channel 4 and the BBC. One woman claims Brand raped her, while another alleged victim, who is now 31, says Brand sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old (the age of consent in the U.K.).
“Amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” Brand said in a video, which preempted the media dump of the allegations by a matter of hours.
“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,” he said. “And 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.”
Brand has also questioned the media coordination regarding the allegations and suggested there was an agenda at play. Moreover, his legal team, given eight days to respond to all allegations, questioned how Brand could specifically refute the allegations if he’s not permitted to know the names of his accusers.
Related: Russell Brand Vehemently Denies Sexual Assault Allegations In Viral Video Statement