Russell Brand has joined an exclusive inner circle of controversial social commentators and conspiracy theorists by having his popular YouTube channel demonetised.
The decision follows a barrage of serious accusations of rape and sexual assault against the actor-turned-YouTuber following a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
Brand has vigorously denied the allegations, telling his 6.62 million YouTube followers that, though he has always been very transparent about his promiscuous nature, his sexual relationships have always been consensual.
“And I’m being transparent about it now as well. And to see that transparency metastasised into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question, is there another agenda at play?” he asked in the last video uploaded to his YouTube channel.
As is common with ‘cancelled’ celebrity figures, devout fans have painted the accusations as an attack by the mainstream media, fueled by Brand’s propensity to voice antiestablishment and at-times conspiratorial views.
“Honestly, dude, it's surprising it has taken them this long to try and shut you down. For me, and many people who follow your content, it is just a sign that you are on the right track. Stay strong, brother,” reads the top comment on his last upload.
“They are coming for the truth tellers. Stay strong Russell,” read another.
Astute observers will see that Russell Brand’s YouTube channel remains very much intact, and he is still able to upload videos if he wishes.
Brand cannot, however, earn money if he decides to do so.
The act of demonetising controversial YouTube celebrities has become a front and centre in the debate over free speech.
YouTube is able to demonetise Brand’s, Walsh’s and others’ accounts in various ways, mainly by limiting ad revenues on his videos and suspending their membership in the YouTube Partner Programme.
Popular YouTubers can command vast paychecks from sponsorship deals. Brand hawked Brickhouse Nutrition, which sells £80 food supplements, on his recent video titled ‘Hang On, Obama Did WHAT?!’
Though it is hard to determine how much these creators earn, top YouTubers such as Markiplier and Mr. Beast are known to earn many millions of dollars in revenue every year.
Speaking to an audience at the University of Iowa, outspoken anti-trans activist Matt Walsh said he was losing $100,000 a month after YouTube demonetised his channel for verbally attacking transgender woman Dylan Mulvaney.
Rumble fish
With deplatforming and demonetisation becoming increasingly contentious issues on YouTube, rival sites have increased in popularity.
Rumble has provided a home to deplatformed and/or demonetised YouTubers.
Right-wing social commentator Steven Crowder fled to Rumble after having his YouTube account demonetised for disputing the US presidential election results in 2020.
Former chief strategist for the Trump administration Stephen Bannon has 938,000 followers on Rumble via his Bannons War Room channel.
Bannon was kicked off YouTube completely in 2021 for both his part in election denial, as well as calling for the beheading of top US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Another deplatformed election denier, the former Trump advisor Sebastian Gorka, has 384,000 Rumble followers.
Comedian Roseanne Barr also recently moved to Rumble after accusing “CCP-funded” YouTube of demonetising per podcast.
I’m so thankful for companies like @rumblevideo and @officialpsq (and post @elonmusk’s @X ). Before them we were silenced and throttled merely for not being stupid and insane and brainwashed. My podcast on CCP funded YouTube isn’t even notifying my nearly 400k subscribers of new…— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) September 18, 2023
Rumble also welcomed Andrew Tate, the wildly controversial yet popular social ‘manosphere’ commentator, after he copped a permanent YouTube ban following human trafficking allegations.
The former kickboxer’s official Rumble channel TateSpeech by Andrew Tate has over 1.6 million followers.
Another infamously deplatformed celebrity, none other than impeached 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump went down another route after being deplatformed from YouTube and Twitter (and Pinterest?!), opting to create his very own Truth Social social media site instead.
Like Rumble, Trump is attempting to take Truth Social public on Nasdaq through a reverse merger.
Since going public in the November 2021 bull run, Rumble Inc is down 42.5% with a market valuation of $1.58 billion.
With the likes of Rumble, and an increasingly unmoderated Twitter/X under Elon Musk, controversial YouTubers have more and more channels available to them if they find their channels demonetised.
Has this taken the sails of out YouTube’s winds as an arbiter of free speech?