What is Rumble? The streaming platform building an alternative internet

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you don’t like the way online speech is regulated, can you build your own internet where you make the rules? This is the story of Rumble, the new king of alt-tech.

Rumble started as a small video streaming platform, hoping to rival YouTube. Recently, it has become the site of choice for Americans frustrated with YouTube moderation, and moved its headquarters to Florida - hailed by some as the new Silicon Valley.

Rumble had been eligible for an economic development incentive grant as part of the move, but the package was scrapped following protests from some locals and Rumble did not receive taxpayer money.

Now, the company is seeking to build the infrastructure for an internet ecosystem that is “immune to cancel culture”. In this episode, we trace the company’s journey from Canadian start-up to Floridian big tech challenger, and ask what this means for the future of public debate online.

Producer/presenter: Ellie House Additional reporting: Annie Phrommayon Sound mix: James Beard

(Photo: Person using phone looking at Rumble app. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, Namulantakombo here with some exciting news.
0:04.1	My award-winning podcast, Dear Daughter, is back for a second season.
0:08.9	We're bringing you more moving personal stories and more letters of advice from people all around the world.
0:15.4	For Daughters everywhere.
0:17.7	That's Dear Daughter from the BBC World Service. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
0:26.7	Hi, I'm Ellie House and welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service. Today, AltTech and the future of the internet.
0:37.2	Running on the Rumble Cloud like we are, this is the
0:39.5	future of taking on woke companies. Rumble, a video platform popular with American conservatives,
0:46.5	is seeking to build an alternative internet ecosystem, one that it says will be immune to
0:52.7	cancel culture.
0:57.0	On today's episode of Business Daily from the BBC,
0:59.7	How to Build a New Internet.
1:12.8	A controversial talk show host, a 23-year-old influencer who found fame through pranks and partying, and a Canadian tech entrepreneur stand behind a clean white table emblazoned with the word
1:19.7	NASDAQ. They're flanked by two dozen suited men and women beaming and clapping as a countdown begins.
1:29.1	Then the CEO presses the button on the table with two hands.
1:33.9	A bell rings and lime green confetti rains from the ceiling.
1:39.1	It's September 2020 and the alternative tech company, Rumble, has just gone public on the biggest technology
1:46.2	stock exchange in the world, with a deal that brought in $400 million.
1:53.2	This is the climax of a story that has been closely tied to the twists and turns of US
1:58.6	politics for the past few years.
2:05.7	The story of a business which some say represents the future of the internet.
2:08.5	But you've probably never heard of it.
	...

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