September 25th 2023.
Russell Brand has made a comeback to his live online show amidst a storm of sexual assault allegations. The comedian, 48, took to the right-wing platform Rumble after YouTube demonetised his content due to the scandal. Several women have accused Brand of rape, sexual assault, and controlling behavior during the height of his fame, with more coming forward and investigations launched by the BBC, Channel 4, and now the Metropolitan Police force.
On Monday night, Brand addressed his viewership of over 70,000 and spoke out against the “war against free speech.” He made reference to his own headlines and said, “The global media war against free speech is in full swing, how do I know? Take a guess… Today, of course, we’re talking about events of the last week but, in particular, the collusion between big tech and government and an apparent concerted effort by legacy media and now the state and big tech to silent independent media voices. Obviously, it’s difficult for me to be entirely objective given the events of the past week but that’s what we’ll try to do.”
Brand also accused the British government of demanding that big technology platforms censor his online content and blasted the BBC for its “trust news initiative” that tackles fake news. He asked his viewers to donate, with subscribers paying a minimum of $60 a year to subscribe to Rumble, with creators profiting from donations.
The comedian’s live-stream came just moments after the Metropolitan Police announced an investigation into allegations of past sexual offences in London and other areas. All the offences are non-recent. Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy stated, “We continue to encourage anyone who believes they may have been a victim of a sexual offence, no matter how long ago it was, to contact us. We understand it can feel like a difficult step to take and I want to reassure that we have a team of specialist officers available to advise and support.” At this point in time, there have been no arrests and enquiries are still ongoing.
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