British comedian and podcaster Russell Brand had a YouTube video censored for "misinformation" on Tuesday.
"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," said Brand. "I'll have to be careful talking about it now cause I don't want to make the same mistake that's had one of our videos pulled down and an official warning issued," Brand continued, reminding viewers he was moving exclusively to competitor streaming platform Rumble.
"We have a responsibility to make sure that the information we convey is absolutely 100% as accurate as it possibly could be," said Brand.
The video in question, "You're Not Going To F---ing Believe this," had been banned because Brand had mistakenly claimed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was "recommending" ivermectin as treatment for COVID-19. Viewers informed him of his inaccurate reporting and the comedian released a follow-up video apologizing for his mistake and clarifying the NIH was simply "trialing" the medication.
Brand said he has since removed the apology video from YouTube as a cautionary measure to prevent further censorship. However, both removed videos are still available on his Rumble channel.
"That's the reason we're joining [Rumble], because they're not going to censor our content. And this misinformation strike and take down demonstrates exactly what it is we're talking about," said Brand. "We made an error — in my opinion a relatively small error — and we're being penalized. For me that looks like censorship, and the reason I think it looks like censorship is because there's mainstream media misinformation up all the time.”
To illustrate, Brand showed a March 2021 clip, which is still live on YouTube, from MSNBC's Rachel Maddow claiming the COVID-19 vaccine stops transmission of the disease.
Rumble, which brands itself as a neutral video platform that seeks to protect a free and open internet, announced an exclusive partnership with Brand on Sept. 12 in a statement.
"We are excited to empower Russell to grow his audience on Rumble and Locals,” said founder and CEO Chris Pavlovski. "Russell is known for his unfiltered opinions, and we are proud to serve as the technology platform where he can grow his audience."
"We are here to serve our community — which includes everyone," said Brand according to the statement. "We are here to question everything, we are here to have a laugh, to Build Back Better and Make News Great Again. Stay Free."
Episodes of Stay Free With Russell Brand will premiere weekdays at 1 p.m. EST starting Sept. 28. After the show, Brand will host an exclusive question and answer session for subscribers on his Locals community page.
