The right-wing YouTube alternative Rumble has been signing new talent and expanding in recent months.
But with that growth has come a wide assortment of new provocative characters, such as white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes, who has accused the site, which bills itself as a free speech haven, of censoring his video content.
“We noticed in my first-ever Rumble exclusive on Monday. Apparently, I’m shadow banned on the website, which is outrageous because they are supposed to be [a] First Amendment, free speech platform,” Fuentes fumed on a Friday broadcast to his website.
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“I do this stream, and I am the second biggest live streamer on the site at a given time...and in spite of this, I am not on the front page,” he continued, while further claiming he wasn’t listed on the livestream “section.”
“It is very noticeable,” Fuentes added. “A lot of people complained.”
Since his rant, fervent followers of the Unite the Right attendee have spammed Rumble’s Twitter page questioning the company’s commitment to the First Amendment.
The battle between Fuentes, his “groyper army” followers, and the streaming site kicked off over a week ago when the white nationalist leader suggested he was being “shadow banned.”
“What the fuck,” Fuentes said on a live stream last week. He then reviewed videos listed on Rumble’s homepage and made snide remarks about what programming earned its way onto the site’s “picks” page. “What is that,” he continued, increasingly frustrated at videos that were being promoted on Rumble. “That’s crazy.”
Neither a Rumble representative nor Fuentes returned The Daily Beast’s requests for comment on Sunday afternoon.
Alternative “free-speech” websites and platforms have long struggled to balance what should and shouldn’t be allowed on their respective forums. In December 2021, the term “groyper”—which is what Fuentes’ followers call themselves and is a racist offshoot of the Pepe The Frog meme—was banned from Gettr, another free-speech social platform. Fuentes himself was booted from the site, too.
As the platform eyes newfound success, the Fuentes controversy could derail those expansion efforts.
In January, Axios reported that Donald Trump Jr. had inked a deal with the streaming platform. “The deal brings momentum to Rumble following its debut as a public company last year,” the publication gushingly wrote. Trump Jr.’s partner Kimberly Guilfoyle subsequently signed a deal with the video streaming service the next month.
Fueling the company’s growth has also been its less political talent, such as the edgy YouTuber Stephen Deleonardis, or “SteveWillDoIt,” who built his following being part of a widely popular group of YouTubers called the “NELK Boys,” who produce party scene videos.
While ironic, claims of “censorship” on websites pioneered as free speech safe zones by fellow right-wing pundits are nothing new.
Last year, longtime Republican operative and Trump ally Roger Stone complained that the former president’s Truth Social platform was censoring his posts.
