Russell Brand is the #MeToo movement’s latest villain, and in the wake of multiple sexual assault allegations that suddenly appeared earlier this week, YouTube suspended monetization of his accounts Tuesday. That’s par for the course with YouTube, really, and no one was surprised. But that wasn’t enough for one British Member of Parliament, Dame Caroline Dinenage, who chairs the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee in the House of Commons.
This morning I set out @commonsCMS ’s next steps on culture and safeguarding in the media, following this weekend’s allegations against Russell Brand pic.twitter.com/EnumXFqLzL
— Caroline Dinenage (@cj_dinenage) September 19, 2023
Dinenage, on behalf of her committee, wrote to Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski asking whether Rumble was going to follow YouTube’s lead and suspend monetization of Brand’s account, noting that Brand had posted his pre-emptive message regarding the allegations to Rumble.
Attached is the letter from the UK Parliament. pic.twitter.com/MdeYrlt06J
— Rumble – 🏴☠️ $RUM (@rumblevideo) September 20, 2023
The whole letter is just beyond the pale, but this line gives me chills:
While we recognise that Rumble is not the creator of the content published by Mr Brand, we are concerned that he may be able to profit from his content on the platform.
Just for the sake of argument, assume that Brand ends up criminally charged in one or more of the instances complained of. Should the government be preventing him from having the ability to pay for attorneys for his defense? Obviously, that’s a big no.
Rumble published their reply on Twitter/X, and reminded Dame Dinenage that we are not in the United Kingdom and that here in the United States we do things a little differently. Well, at least some of us still do things a little differently.
Rumble’s response to the UK Parliament’s letter to our CEO @chrispavlovski pic.twitter.com/iSCpHIHoU4
— Rumble – 🏴☠️ $RUM (@rumblevideo) September 20, 2023
As my friend Senia, a podcast producer for some pretty prominent conservative pundits, said, “The UK parliament can f**k right off.”
