On Wednesday Freedom Speech video sharing platform Rumble shamed legacy media for supporting corporate-media-driven public censorship after a journalist at the Globe and Mail asked why they aren’t limiting Russian content on the platform like some others.
“The Globe and Mail is demanding to know why we aren’t dutifully copying YouTube’s censorship. It is now common that we receive pressure from journalists demanding that we censor more,” Rumble wrote
In the tweet Rumble posted emails they received by journalists at The Globe and Mail displaying questions they were asked.
Rumble shared two emails on Twitter that showed questions sent to them earlier this week by Globe journalist Joe Castaldo. Castaldo had asked for an comment as to why the platform hasn’t limited or blocked content from Russian broadcasters, whereas other sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter quickly censored Russia Today (RT) following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The first email writes, “YouTube announced a policy to prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events in connection to Russia’s war in Ukraine.” Castaldo continued, asking, “(d)oes Rumble have any plan to enact policies similar to Youtube to deal with such content?”
In the second email Castaldo referred to two sources, Ahmed Al-Rawi from SFU and Imran Ahmed CEO for left-wing affiliated Center For Countering Digital Hate UK, accused Rumble of spreading “Kremlin lies and propaganda” adding their business model relies on “fringe groups who disseminate conspiracy theories and disinformation under the pretext of freedom of expression.”
Imran Ahmed is the CEO for left-wing affiliated Center For Countering Digital Hate UK. In regards to propaganda and disinformation, during a interview about COVID-19 on NHK World, Imran Ahmed insisted there are antivaxxers that “their job is to persuade people not to vaccinate” he said adding “There are billionaires gaming the system to work for them”. According to Imran Ahmed these “antivaxxers” have giant companies behind them with millions of dollars to create so-called “antivaxxer propaganda”. However he didn’t provide any sources or data to back up this claim and didn’t say what the motive would be since there is no financial gain.
On October 8, 2021 Ahmed Al-Rawi said searching for one hashtag on Instagram brings up no results but that same hashtag searched on Twitter bring up countless and because of this single hashtag search he claims Twitter doesn’t do censorship “That means Twitter is just like, ‘Yeah, go ahead, say anything you like’”. However 3 high profile accounts have recently been suspended from Twitter such as satire website TheBabylonBee, an account dedicated to reposting liberal videos from tik tok on to twitter called Libs of Tik Tok and Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Ahmed Al-Rawi is also a prolific pusher of more social media censorship with the government applying pressure to private businesses to censor their users.
Castaldo later wrote that he could provide examples of prominent creators such as Stew Peters and Alex Jones having produced videos “mirroring Russian government propaganda.”
Rumble replied with a scathing remark on corporate media and the big tech conglomerates that advocate for public censorship.
“There is a reason the public has radically turned against both the corporate media (such as your outlet) and Big Tech: because you have arrogantly claimed for yourselves the power to decide for the public what information they can and cannot be trusted to hear and what views they can and cannot express,” the platform tweeted.
Rumble then continued, saying, “(b)y stark contrast, the reason Rumble is growing so rapidly is because we trust adults to make decisions for themselves about what ideas they can express, and we trust them to make up their own minds after hearing all sides.”
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald responded to the post.
“It cannot be overstated: (a) how surreal and dangerous it is that the leaders of the campaign for greater censorship are “journalists” (i.e., employees of large media corporations) and (b) how vital it is to have free speech platforms resisting this coercion to censor.”
MPs at the Commons heritage committee voted on Feb 28. to require the Canadian Radio Television Commission (CRTC) to prevent “state-controlled broadcasters” from airing in Canada.
The motion, which was put forward by Liberal MP Yvan Baker, called on cabinet to “issue an order of general application directing the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission to a new broadcasting policy that would remove state-controlled broadcasters that spread disinformation and propaganda from the CRTC’s list of non-Canadian programming services and stations authorized for distribution, effectively removing Russia Today from Canadian airwaves.”
Rumble’s Founder and CEO is Chris Pavlovski, a Canadian who now runs the company out of Florida, USA.
