During the epidemic, it became evident that media outlets were selectively posting just what they approved of, and that mainstream society did not support freedom of expression. This meant that only viewpoints that coincided with media executives were presented.

New websites and applications proclaimed themselves to be free-speech forums. They overlooked the reality that controlled platforms were already a forum for falsehood when they stated that free expression would give birth to misinformation. In reaction to YouTube’s censorship of user-uploaded videos, the user-generated site Rumble emerged as a conservative alternative.

Rumble’s user base has been expanding significantly, and the firm went public last year. In September, Rumble went public through a business merger that valued the platform at over $2 billion at the time. The firm has made progress in expanding its user base, but it continues to burn through funds as it offers new services and invests on marketing.

Axios has discovered that Donald Trump Jr. has signed a multiyear podcast agreement with Rumble Inc., giving the company momentum following its public debut. With the agreement, Rumble will exclusively broadcast a new podcast by Trump Jr. titled “Triggered with Don Jr.” – a reference to the title of his forthcoming book.

Beginning the week of January 23, the live program will air twice each week, with the prospect of growing its frequency in the future. Trump Jr. joined Rumble at the beginning of 2021. He now has over one million subscribers, making him one of the platform’s most popular users. As with his existing Rumble videos, the podcast will mostly include Trump Jr.’s commentary on current events. He also intends to conduct interviews with visitors.

The agreement with Trump is part of Rumble’s huge growth plan. Russell Brand, Glenn Greenwald, and YouTuber David Freiheit, also known as VivaFrei, have signed exclusive arrangements with Rumble in an effort to increase its reach. Trump Jr. stated, “While other Big Tech companies are focused on censoring dissent, Rumble is building a platform that welcomes it, which is why so many content creators — all over the political spectrum — are now joining them.”

Again, skeptics assert that Rumble’s emphasis on free speech has made it a target for users seeking to publish false material, ignoring the fact that this has been true since the inception of the internet. In truth, people who seek to disseminate fake material have always had several options available to them. The concept that censorship is a method to bypass this misses the reality that whomever is doing the censoring is pushing their own version of the facts, therefore producing disinformation that is oriented to their own ideas.

Even though the platform is still expanding, it has ambitious goals. While Rumble is still much smaller than YouTube or Instagram, it has managed to attract one of the largest audiences among the plethora of alternative platforms that emerged in the wake of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, when Americans were confused by illogical media coverage and sought a less biased forum.

In its November financial results report, the Toronto-based business stated that it had an average of 71 million monthly active users worldwide. 57 million of these users resided in the United States and Canada. The business, which received funding from venture capitalists such as billionaire Peter Thiel, U.S. Senator-elect J.D. Vance, and Colt Ventures, raised around $400 million in gross proceeds when it went public through a blank check merger. As of the end of the third quarter of 2022, the corporation had on hand $356.7 million. Axios claims that Rumble’s expansion into subscriptions and additional goods, such as podcasts, is intended to help the company attain profitability. Currently, the majority of Rumble’s revenue comes from advertising.

More on this story via The Republic Brief:

“Due to the live nature of Don’s podcast and others like it on our platform, I view our podcasts as something that won’t just compete with other podcasting networks, but will also compete with traditional linear television in the long term,” Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski said, eluding to the long-term growth of the platform. CONTINUE READING…