Rumble — the right-wing streaming site that markets itself as a “free speech” YouTube competitor — is allowing white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes to profit from the platform. Recently, Fuentes made money from GOP presidential debate reaction content, which he livestreamed on the website.
The debate was livestreamed exclusively on Rumble. Fuentes’ simultaneous reaction stream garnered nearly 30,000 views.
Fuentes listed a link to his Stream Payments profile below his coverage of the debate. Stream Payments enables viewers to send so-called “super chats” — prominent messages that viewers pay for to encourage hosts to read them aloud and give shoutouts on screen. Bad actors and right-wing media figures have used super chat functions in the past to profit from their streams.
Rumble has a history of profiting from content featuring Fuentes and his associates, who have repeatedly pushed neo-Nazi rhetoric and made antisemitic comments.
Fuentes, who currently has roughly 34,000 followers on the platform, has a strained relationship with the video-hosting site. Rumble previously removed an antisemitic speech from Fuentes calling for a “holy war” against Jewish people, which the platform reportedly labeled as “incitement to violence.” Fuentes claimed that he was suspended from streaming on Rumble for two weeks following the video’s removal, but was still allowed to upload videos. During that alleged suspension, he posted a video in which he fantasized about teaming up with Hitler to kill a Black man.
Rumble has previously profited off of pre-roll advertisements on various videos from QAnon conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, and other extremists.
