Russell Brand, Once Seen as Progressive, Moves to Conservative Platform

Russell Brand is moving his show, Stay Free with Russell Brand, to the right-wing video platform Rumble following YouTube removing one of his videos due to it containing misinformation. The first episode on Rumble debuts Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET.

The move to the right might be surprising for many since Brand—an actor and comedian—was once viewed as being overwhelmingly progressive in his views. He was once a guest columnist at the left-leaning magazine The New Statesman and shared his liberal opinions on topics like income inequality and others through his platform. However, Brand's "brand" appeared to change throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Brand's YouTube show, Stay Free with Russell Brand, has taken to discussing COVID-19, conspiracy theories and other concepts that he claims the media has lied about. Such videos have even garnered him praise from other well-respected people who think outside the box, like Elon Musk.

Now, Brand has stated that he is moving all of his content off of YouTube, opting to begin streaming Stay Free with Russell Brand every day on Rumble, putting him on the same platform as Donald Trump Jr. and Alex Jones, among others.

The announcement of the switch came in a video posted on Brand's Twitter on Tuesday with a message that was captioned: "I've been censored on YouTube."

"They took down one of our videos for misinformation," Brand said in the accompanying clip. "But why are big media organizations not censored for misinformation in the same way? Is it because YouTube are part of the mainstream media now?"

Brand went on to explain what led to the video of his being taken down.

"Earlier this month, we did a video about the changing narratives around COVID, the pandemic, and COVID treatments, in which we cited information on official government websites which we misinterpreted," the actor said.

The earlier video discussed the use of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment. Specifically, Brand claimed that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had "added ivermectin to the list of COVID treatments" the day before he published his video. However, the NIH only listed that they were continuing to evaluate its use for COVID but still recommends against the use of ivermectin except in clinical trials.

The video on YouTube was taken down, and an official warning for misinformation was placed on the content.

Brand later published an apology video titled "I Was Wrong" that has also since been taken down, this time by Brand, and discussed it again in the Tuesday video he posted on Twitter.

"We have been persecuted for misinformation and it's right, we have a responsibility to make sure that the information we convey is absolutely, 100 percent as accurate as it possibly could be," Brand said. After the removal of both videos discussing ivermectin, Brand said that both can be watched on Rumble.

"That's the reason we're joining them, because they're not going to censor our content and this misinformation strike and takedown demonstrates exactly what it is we're talking about. We made an error, in my opinion, a relatively small error, and we're being penalized. For me, that looks like censorship," Brand added.

Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski told PR Newswire, "We are excited to empower Russell to grow his audience on Rumble and Locals. Russell is known for his unfiltered opinions, and we are proud to serve as the technology platform where he can grow his audience."

And in a tweet regarding Brand's announcement, Pavlovski said of YouTube, "Totally evil, and a total abuse of power. They don't deserve creators."

Newsweek reached out to a representative for Brand for comment.