Rumble promoted and profited from misogynistic streamer Sneako’s six-hour livestream with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and fellow “manosphere” influencers Jon Zherka and Myron Gaines. The May 30 livestream featured numerous severely anti-LGBTQ and antisemitic rants, including Holocaust denial and homophobic slurs. This hateful content seemingly violates Rumble’s policy against antisemitism, as well as the policies of app stores hosting the platform.
Rumble, which is set to host an exclusive livestream for the first Republican presidential primary debate in August, prides itself on its lax to nonexistent content moderation and promises to be “immune from cancel culture.” Rumble is openly attempting to become “the new frontier in social media” by recruiting pundits and pranksters who have been banned, often repeatedly, for policy violations on other social media platforms.
Rumble does have policies against hate speech, including antisemitism, and has in at least one instance removed monetized videos espousing Holocaust denial. But the platform remains rife with extremist content, seemingly violating the policies of Google Play and Apple’s App Store, where Rumble has recently bragged that it surpassed mainstream platforms in popularity. The Apple App Store, for example, not only states that apps should not feature “defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary about religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, national/ethnic origin, or other targeted groups,” but affirms that “if you’re looking to shock and offend people, the App Store isn’t the right place for your app.” Similarly, Google Play claims not to allow apps with content “denying the occurrence of a well-documented, major tragic event” or those that “promote violence, or incite hatred against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, … sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, caste, immigration status, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.”
Sneako’s May 30 livestream is seemingly the latest example of Rumble’s content violating these app store policies. The livestream was also monetized, meaning that the platform is profiting from running ads alongside its hateful content. Rumble even promoted the livestream on its daily “Battle Leaderboard Top 50,” where it was listed as the fourth most-liked video on the platform from that day.
