Rep. Donalds Demands Answers In SEC Rumble Probe

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating the free speech platform Rumble and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) has a lot of questions and concerns. Front and center of these is the possibility that the 2024 presidential election would be impacted — perhaps intentionally.

Rumble has billed itself as an alternative to “Big Tech” establishment platforms such as Facebook and YouTube (owned by Google), which are known for being controlled by left-wing and Democrat activists. Content on these platforms that is not in alignment with the views of left-leaning corporate overlords is routinely censored or “shadow-banned”. Prominent conservative creators have been suspended, demonetized, or de-platformed entirely.

The SEC probe centers around activist investor group Culper Research, which has made claims that Rumble was inflating user counts. Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski has strongly denied this — and has further pointed out that Culper Research currently has a short position in Rumble’s stock and would stand to gain if the value of the publicly traded company dropped.

Rep. Donalds finds the circumstances and timing of the investigation suspicious. He has noted that the platform has a strong association with the Republican Party, as Rumble was awarded online streaming rights to the GOP primary debates. He also pointed out that many conservative influencers banned from mainstream platforms have resurfaced on Rumble.

These circumstances provide a strong motive for a coordinated attack on Rumble to limit its influence on the 2024 election by way of intimidating litigation. Culver Research appears to be a useful tool of the Biden administration to help damage Rumble while profiting from doing so.

In a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, Rep. Donalds demanded he divulge key information regarding the case, including any contact between the SEC and Culper Research and any contact the Biden Administration has had with the SEC reading the probe.

Pavlovski has indicated that he has the hard data to prove Culper Research’s claims are false and will vigorously defend the company.

The SEC investigation has been called out by other commentators as a direct attack on free speech. Jeremy Hambly from The Quartering likened it to the 2021 stock price manipulation of game seller Gamestop.

Rumble is not the first alternative social media platform to be targeted by left-wing power brokers. Following the January 6, 2021 “insurrection”, the social media platform Parler was accused of being the key means of organization used by the protesters. Amazon removed it from their servers hosting it, and Apple and Google removed the application from their online stores. While Parler was favored by conservatives as being a free speech alternative, even the leftist news source Buzzfeed has acknowledged that most of the planning for those attending the protest was done using Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg’s platform had hosted groups such as the 23,500-member Patriot Patry who planned for the event.

Rumble Inc. (RUM) has been publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange since September 2022.