Investigating Canadian YouTube rival Rumble and its growing popularity among the world's far right

As he wandered the red zone of the protest site in Ottawa, David Freiheit appeared bashful about the reception he received, but also energized by it. People wanted pictures with him, embraced him with whispers of support in his ear, and treated him like a celebrity. He was livestreaming for hours at a time, his quick legal mind providing commentary in between interviews with the people drawn to the protest, and to him. But Rumble had the hometown advantage during the trucker protests, even though many of the tens of millions who check out the video hosting platform every month may not know it’s Canadian. “I have difficulty keeping it to myself now because things have fallen off a cliff in terms of rational discourse and rational behaviour from the political elite,” he told W5. His fans knew him from his video channel hosted on rumble.com, as well as substantial followers on YouTube and Facebook. CEO Chris Pavlovski tells the foundation story of Rumble in just about every interview he grants, primarily to American conservative media. It goes something like this. In 2013, upset that YouTube was making it harder for everyday content creators to earn a living, Pavlovski created…
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