Russell Brand returned to social media today, giving his followers (on the platforms that will still give him money for posting on them, anyway) a list of topics he’ll be addressing in the upcoming week on his online shows—a list that did not, somehow, include addressing the multiple allegations of sexual assault that have recently been made against him.
This is per THR, which reports on a video the comedian—who’s faced demonetization on YouTube, in addition to having his work pulled from places like BBC’s streaming offerings and Paramount+—posted on social media this weekend. The three-minute video is, if nothing else, an unsettling glimpse into Brand’s conception of the last week, which has not, in his telling, been the story of a very famous comedian being accused of rape by multiple women across a multi-year period. No, this is all about censorship, as Brand claims to his followers that organizations like the BBC stepping away from him have nothing to do with a history of joking about sexual assaults he’s now formally accused of committing, but about the British government trying to control the spread of the truth. (Sorry for the wayward italics here; Brand just kind of talks like this, with his hands in constant motion during his videos, and it’s infectious.)
In the video, Brand points his followers toward video hosting platform Rumble, now “the primary platform that we will be streaming from,” after the other ones stopped giving him money. (He has 1.49 million followers on the platform, where he regularly posts videos with titles like “OH SH*T, Bill Gates Is Doing WHAT to FRIUT Now?!!”) He briefly mentions “the Deep State.” At no point does he actually address the allegations against him, only noting that “Obviously, it’s been an extraordinary and distressing week.” (He previously issued a statement, ahead of the initial report, denying all charges against him.) It’s very odd, parallel reality stuff—even as our actual reality continues to fill up with people coming forward with complaints and allegations against him.