QUESTIONABLE SOURCE
A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency and/or is fake news. Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for the purpose of profit or influence (Learn More). Sources listed in the Questionable Category may be very untrustworthy and should be fact checked on a per article basis. Please note sources on this list are not considered fake news unless specifically written in the reasoning section for that source. See all Questionable sources.
- Overall, we rate Rumble Right Biased and Questionable based on the promotion of right-wing propaganda and conspiracy theories as well as false information, use of poor sources, and a lack of transparency.
Detailed Report
Reasoning: Far Right, Propaganda, Conspiracy, Poor Sourcing, False Information, Lack of Transparency
Country: Canada
World Press Freedom Rank: Canada 16/180
Founded in 2013 by Chris Pavlovski, Rumble is a video-sharing platform that allows users to upload and share videos. Prior to 2020, Rumble was not known as a place that published politically biased videos. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Presidential election, many right-wing pundits joined the service leading to incredible growth by right biased and pro-Trump supporters. According to Chris Pavlovski Rumble is a “clean YouTube competitor, the place they can feel safe.” Finally, in 2020, Conservative Pundit Dan Bongino bought an equity stake in the company.
Read our report on Canadian media and government.
Funded by / Ownership
Rumble lacks transparency as they do not clearly disclose ownership, however, they are owned by Rumble, Inc based in Toronto, Canada. They also don’t indicate that Dan Bongino holds an equity stake in the company. Revenue is derived through advertising, subscriptions, and the sale of video management software and analysis.
Analysis / Bias
In review, Rumble is a video upload and streaming service that feature a wide range of videos. However, over the course of 2020, the video service began featuring more and more right biased content. Some of their featured video channels include author Dinesh D’Souza, Charlie Kirk, OANN, Sean Hannity, Newsmax, and of course Dan Bongino. While many of the videos featured are non-political such as cute animal videos, the majority of news videos are far-right biased and some from conspiracy sources such as X22 Reports and Steve Bannon’s War Room.
During 2020, they have promoted false and misleading information regarding Covid-19 such as anti-mask propaganda: Masks dont work and heres why. According to science and experts in the field, a mask is essential to slow the spread of Covid-19. Further, during the 2020 Presidential election, they frequently published false videos claiming election fraud such as this HAMMER software fraud in real time. Finally, they also promote conspiracy theories from QAnon such as this Plandemic COVID SCAM – Fall Of Cabal Deep State And Illuminati Globalist Agenda 21 ID2020. In general, the videos published on Rumble are mostly right biased and many are not factual or promote conspiracy theories.
Failed Fact Checks
Overall, we rate Rumble Right Biased and Questionable based on the promotion of right-wing propaganda and conspiracy theories as well as false information, use of poor sources, and a lack of transparency. (D. Van Zandt 1/1/2021)