I think Big Tech, Big Media and Big Government just shot themselves in the foot. They all colluded to get Russell Brand demonetized on YouTube. He has ~6.5 million followers there. And it’s not just YouTube.
The British government sent a letter to social media platforms, including YouTube and Rumble, pressuring them to demonetize or even censor all of Brand’s content. No word yet on whether Twitter/X got the same letter. YouTube quickly complied. Rumble even more quickly told them to go pound sand up their third point of contact. BBC contacted social media platforms to ask them if they were going to demonetize or deplatform Brand, suggesting they’d be writing hit pieces on them if they didn’t.
As a result of this Brand announced he is moving to Rumble. For a long time Rumble has struggled and failed to get any traction in attracting top creators. The money at YouTube was just too good. But now Brand is moving there, breaking that barrier. He already has 1.6 million Rumble followers, which is many times what any other channel has been able to get on that platform. Brand may well be the Pied Piper leading conservative creators to bail from YouTube, which they already hate, to Rumble. This could be the beginning of Rumble becoming a viable YouTube competitor. I guess we'll see soon enough.
If that happens then YouTube loses tons of revenue. Also facing competition and creators having a real choice for the first time, YouTube will have to stop abusing creators and become far more transparent to retain them. At the same time Big Tech and Big Media lose the ability to control and suppress conservative voices via collusion with YouTube.
I sooo hope this is the way things go. The irony of an organized censorship plot by the usual suspects creating the exact opposite of what they intended would be just too delicious. It'd be a huge win for free speech. And a huge loss for our oppresors. It’d be just the victory we need going into this critical upcoming election year. Cross your fingers.