On a chartreuse background, a green Rumble app icon is seen, with lime green tendrils snaking around the icon.

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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App stores continue to carry the Rumble app, despite policy violations

Samsung TV, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and LG Smart TV offer Rumble's app, which contains neo-Nazi videos

Written by Natalie Mathes & Charis Hoard

Published

Rumble is widely available on smart TVs and mobile phones through the app stores of major companies including Apple, Google, and Samsung even though the platform hosts content that seemingly violates each of those app stores’ policies against discriminatory, hateful, and/or violent content. Media Matters has identified several examples of hate speech, conspiracy theories, and violent rhetoric — including neo-Nazi and QAnon content — that seem to violate those companies’ terms of service.

  • Rumble, an extreme video-sharing platform embraced by the Republican Party, became available for streaming on Samsung TV in August

    • Rumble claims to be a “free speech” haven, but in reality is a cesspool of hate and misinformation. Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski has described building a “free speech economy” which will be “[untouchable] from big tech.” The company has courted, promoted, and profited from figures who have been suspended or banned from other sites for repeatedly violating their policies, choosing to platform and monetize their bigotry and conspiracy theories. [Media Matters, 4/11/23, 8/22/23; X/Twitter, 9/5/23, 9/6/23]
    • Rumble is a publicly traded company that is backed by right-wing figures and conservative billionaires. Rumble boasts financial ties to numerous high-profile right-wing figures, including former Fox host Dan Bongino, who acquired an equity stake in the company in 2020, now-Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), and right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel had invested in the company. In December 2021, Rumble also secured a partnership with former President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, and earlier this year, Rumble acquired podcast and livestreaming company, Callin, from right-wing billionaire tech investor David Sacks and co-founder Axel Ericsson. Sacks also joined Rumble's board of directors as part of the deal. Biotech entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has reportedly invested up to $25 million in Rumble. [Washington Examiner, 9/17/20; The New Yorker, 12/27/21; Vice, 5/20/21, 12/15/21; Bloomberg, 9/19/22; Media Matters, 5/23/23; The Seattle Times, 7/7/23]
    • Rumble has partnered with the Republican National Committee for a pair of exclusive presidential primary debates. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has brokered agreements with Rumble to host exclusive livestreams of the first two GOP 2024 presidential primary debates. [Media Matters, 4/12/23; Rumble, 8/9/23]
    • On August 18, Rumble announced that it would now be available for streaming on Samsung TV. Pavlovski called the move “an expansion of our ability to deliver content anywhere,” even though some of this content violates Samsung TV policies. [Rumble, 8/18/23]
    • Rumble is also available through Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and LG Smart TV, even though the platform allows content that violates the policies of these app store carriers. [Rumble, 8/18/23]

  • These companies’ app store policies prohibit content that is discriminatory, hateful, or promotes violence

    • Samsung TV’s app policies do not allow apps distributed on its TVs to “promote intolerance or discrimination based on racial, political, ethnic, religious, gender or sexuality.” Samsung also “reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to remove any Application from the Store.” [Samsung, accessed 8/25/23]
    • Apple’s App Store safety guidelines dictate that apps available for phones, tablets, and TVs through its store should not include content that is “defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited … including references or commentary about religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, national/ethnic origin, or other targeted groups.” Its guidelines have a clear distinction that an app is not allowed “if the app is likely to humiliate, intimidate, or harm a targeted individual or group.” [App Store, accessed 8/25/23]
    • The Google Play Store, which distributes apps to Google phones and TVs, has policies that prohibit apps which “promote violence or incite hatred against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, etc.” Google’s app guidelines also prohibit content that contains “hateful slurs, stereotypes, or theories about a protected group possessing negative characteristics, or explicitly or implicitly claims the group is a threat.” [Google Play, accessed 8/25/23]
    • The Amazon App Store, which is accessible on Amazon Fire TV and Amazon Fire tablets, does not allow apps that feature “Nazi symbols or other symbols of hate, promote hate speech.” The guidelines also disallow content that would “promote groups or organizations which support such beliefs.” [Amazon, accessed 8/28/23]
    • LG TV’s terms and conditions prohibit distributing content that includes “any expressions of violent towards or discriminative against specific regions, genders, generations, religions, and/or ethnic groups.” Its guidelines also dictate that apps should not include “themes against any specific religious or national background.” [LG, accessed 9/13/23]

  • Rumble is rife with hateful and discriminatory content — seemingly in violation of app store policies

    • Rumble placed ads for its exclusive livestream of the first Republican presidential primary debate on numerous pro-Hitler and neo-Nazi videos. These videos seem like clear violations of Rumble’s own “strict policies that ban … antisemitism,” as well as violations of the Amazon App Store’s policies against “Nazi symbols or other symbols of hate.” [Media Matters, 8/23/23; Amazon, accessed 8/28/23; Bloomberg, 9/29/22]
    • During a five-hour Rumble livestream, men's rights activist Tommy Sotomayor claimed that “if whites weren't superior to Blacks, Blacks wouldn't be walking around right now saying, ‘Black lives matter.’ ‘Hands up, don’t shoot.’ ‘Please treat us equally.’” He continued, “If whites weren't superior to Blacks, Blacks wouldn't have to do that.” Such statements appear to violate the terms of service of several platforms. [Rumble, The Tommy Sotomayor Show, 7/23/23]
    • In another Rumble livestream, Sotomayor claimed that “the downfall of the Black race is the Black women'' and that “Black women embarrass us way more than the Black men do.” [Rumble, The Tommy Sotomayor Show, 7/12/23]
    • White nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes said on Rumble: “A lot of George Floyds and [Jordan] Neelys are going to die before we’re going to have a civilization that our kids are going to be safe to live in.” “People just have to develop a stomach for this sort of thing," Fuentes added. Fuentes’ rhetoric about Floyd and Neely, a Black homeless man who was killed on the New York City subway, seems to violate app stores’ policies prohibiting content that incites violence or promotes hatred against racial groups. [Rumble, America First, 5/5/23]
    • The misogynistic Fresh & Fit podcast, which streams on Rumble, hosted Fuentes for multiple hours-long streams in which he denied the Holocaust and claimed that women are “baby machines.” “I don’t believe in the Holocaust,” Fuentes said. “I don’t believe there were gas chambers. I don’t believe it was 6 million.” Fuentes has repeatedly appeared on Fresh & Fit, which markets itself as a dating podcast but regularly spews misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and antisemitic conspiracy theories. During a July 10 stream, for instance, co-host Myron Gaines bragged, “We’re the biggest platform that’s talking about the JQ. No one else will do it.” The “JQ” — or the “Jewish Question” — is an antisemitic framework that posits the Jewish diaspora is a “problem that needed to be solved.” Such statements appear to violate the terms of service of several platforms. [Media Matters, 3/16/23, 7/12/23; Amazon, accessed 8/28/23]
    • During a rally that was livestreamed on Rumble, Fuentes spent more than an hour ranting about the supposed “Jewish stranglehold” over the United States. Fuentes also fearmongered about “a genocide against whites” and a “concerted effort to fill up” white countries around the world with “nonwhite immigrants.” Fuentes also called for a “holy war,” adding: “Because we're willing to die in the holy war, we will make them die in the holy war.” Rumble removed Fuentes’ original livestream, but other users reuploaded the video to the site, and each of those reuploaded videos featured banner ads and/or ads before the video — meaning Rumble profited from Fuentes’ antisemitic remarks that likely violate several app stores' policies. [Media Matters, 7/19/23]
    • On his Rumble channel, Fuentes claimed that Muslims, Black people, and Arabs are genetically “not compatible” with the American system, which is “based on who we are as whites.” Fuentes ranted, “It’s always Blacks that are doing the crime, it’s always Blacks that are running from the cops, it’s always Blacks that are then being gunned down by the cops, and then it’s always Blacks that are blowing up the city, in the name of justice, but then looting liquor stores and phone stores and grocery stores and so on. … And it’s the same thing that you see in France. This is a third-world problem; these are third-world people, bringing third-world behaviors, causing third-world problems.” Fuentes' harmful rhetoric appears to violate app stores' policies against expressions of intolerance or discrimination of racial groups. [Rumble, America First, 7/1/23]
    • During a Rumble stream, Fuentes denounced various civil rights efforts as about “the third-world recolonization of America” and used harmful rhetoric that seems to violate app stores' policies prohibiting content that incites violence or promotes hatred against racial groups. Fuentes stated, “I’m sick of hearing about this Black minority in America, because that’s what they are. They were a cheap labor source when the country was founded. They were slaves. And then from the time they were freed until now they’ve been a small, you can call it racial but really it’s sort of like an ethnic thing, there are — you have white Americans and Black Americans. And they have been an ethnic enclave minority ever since.” [Rumble, America First, 6/19/23]
    • While mocking the NAACP travel advisory regarding Florida, Rumble Exclusives creator Steven Crowder claimed on Louder with Crowder that “African culture” is “lip spacers” and “neck extenders.” Crowder’s racist language seems to have violated both Samsung TV’s and LG TV’s policies against expressions of intolerance or discrimination against ethnic groups. During the same show, guest Nick di Paolo continued the racist onslaught: “Some people say good, you know, stay the hell away. It’s the Sunshine State and you guys obviously don’t need any more sunshine. Look at you.” [Media Matters, 5/22/23; Samsung, accessed 8/25/23; LG, accessed 9/13/23]

  • Rumble also platforms violent content — seemingly in violation of app store policies

    • Fuentes posted a video to his Rumble channel in which he fantasized that “me and Hitler would team up” to “kill” a Black man who supposedly littered in his neighborhood and called upon his followers “to prepare to catch an aggravated battery charge if you see this in your society.” Fuentes continued, “That guy should be dragged from his car and beaten to death by the public. And I’m supposed to be mad at Hitler because of some fantastical Hollywood story about a gas chamber that looks like a shower?” [Media Matters, 7/31/23]
    • Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake appeared on the Rumble-hosted podcast of Michael Scheuer, a virulent antisemite, and stated that the Second Amendment is “there to stop the tyrants.” Scheuer — who has called for the executions of leading political figures including President Joe Biden — responded by claiming that there’s “an enormous enemy in Washington” and “in the general staff of the military.” [Media Matters, 7/13/23, 8/4/23]