In the midst of accusations of COVID-19 misrepresentation against podcast host Joe Rogan and his controversies, the Canadian online video company Rumble has offered to buy The Joe Rogan Experience podcast’s streaming rights. On February 7, the company matched Spotify’s rumored $100 million contract with Rogan for exclusive rights to broadcast his program in 2020.
According to a tweet from the Canadian video hosting platform, Chris Pavlovski, the company’s founder and CEO, made the offer to Rogan in a personal email. He stated:
“We share your desire for genuine communication with you, your visitors, and your army of admirers. As a result, we’d want to provide you with 100 million reasons to make the world a better place.”
Hey @joerogan, we are ready to fight alongside you. See the note from our CEO @chrispavlovski… pic.twitter.com/G7ahfNNjtP
— Rumble (@rumblevideo) February 7, 2022
Pavlovski reportedly sought to lure Joe Rogan in the email by promising $100 million in fresh and old material over four years. He also said that none of the information posted on their site will be filtered. The CEO continued, saying:
“This is our opportunity to rescue the planet. And, yeah, this is all legal.
What do we know about Rumble and its “right-wing” target demographic?
Rumble is a Toronto, Canada-based online video streaming company created in 2013 by Pavlovksi, seven years after the introduction of Spotify. Currently, the video hosting site is accessible from anywhere in the globe. The company has gained a lot of popularity among conservative customers in the United States over the years. According to a 2020 Washington Post report, “Much of Rumble’s referral traffic is coming from Parler.”
Several right-wing people also support the site, claiming that YouTube and other streaming platform regulations restrict significant information. Right-wing political analyst Dinesh D’Souza, conservative political broadcaster Sean Hannity, and Republican Representative Jim Jordan are among those named.
Furthermore, former US President Donald Trump joined Rumple in 2021 and subsequently teamed with them for his planned social-media site. Meanwhile, in the middle of the epidemic, some content producers have had their work removed from other sites due to claimed COVID falsehoods.
The CEO of the firm said in a news release:
“Rumble is intended to be the railroads and autonomous infrastructure that is resistant to the cancel culture. We are a movement that does not discourage, censor, or penalize innovation, and we think that everyone benefits from having access to a neutral network with a wide range of ideas and viewpoints.”
Joe Rogan’s attitude to censorship, as expressed by Rumble
The CEO of the company talked with the Washington Post and established:
“We don’t participate in scientific debates; we don’t have the competence to do so, and we don’t want to.”
Previously, the platform declared that it does not engage in political arguments and that it is open. Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook, has also invested in the company.
