Key facts about Rumble [Pew]

BY SHREENITA GHOSH AND GALEN STOCKING

(Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Rumble, an online video-sharing platform founded in 2013, is one of several alternative social media platforms that have created small but generally satisfied communities of news consumers in recent years. In October 2022, Pew Research Center released a study that looked closely at Rumble and six other such sites: BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Parler, Telegram and Truth Social.

Here are key facts about Rumble and its users, based on the Center’s study.

How we did this

A bar chart showing that the extent to which Americans have heard of alternative social media sites varies; a very small share of the public (6%) gets news on at least one of them
  • While 20% of U.S. adults say they have heard of Rumble, only 2% regularly get news there. Overall, just 6% of Americans regularly get news from at least one of the seven sites studied, and no single site is used for news by more than 2% of U.S. adults. In comparison, many more Americans use more established social media sites for news, including Facebook (31%), YouTube (25%) and Twitter (14%).
  • Roughly three-quarters of those who regularly get news from Rumble (76%) identify as Republicans or lean toward the Republican Party, while 22% identify as Democrats or lean Democratic. In contrast, those who get news on at least one of three more established social media sites studied by the Center – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – are more likely to be Democrats than Republicans.
A table showing a closer look at news consumers on Rumble
  • Many of Rumble’s news consumers report having positive experiences. Around nine-in-ten of the adults who regularly get news on Rumble (88%) say they expect the news and information there to be mostly accurate, while 10% expect it to be mostly inaccurate. A large share of Rumble news consumers (69%) say the news they got there helped them better understand current events, while 12% say it made them more confused about current events.
A chart showing that alternative social media news consumers report having generally positive news experiences on these sites


Two-thirds of those who regularly get news on Rumble (67%) say they are very or somewhat satisfied with the experience, while 12% are very or somewhat dissatisfied. Additionally, 69% of these news consumers say discussions on Rumble are mostly friendy, while 11% see mostly unfriendly discussions and 13% say they see about an equal mix of the two.

A chart showing that about half or more alternative social media news consumers say discussions on these sites have been mostly friendly
  • While Rumble explicitly states that it supports free speech and opposes censorship, it has policies that allow the platform to moderate user content at least to some extent. Rumble’s website states that it is different from other Big Tech sites that “continue to embrace ‘cancel culture.’” And in December 2021, Rumble challenged New York’s online hate speech law, which requires sites to “provide and maintain a clear and easily accessible mechanism for individual users to report incidents of hateful conduct.” Still, Rumble does place some restrictions on content. A review of Rumble’s proposed moderation policies from June 2022 shows that they prohibit obscenity, stalking and discrimination.
  • Most of Rumble’s prominent accounts are run by individuals, not organizations, and about a quarter have been banned or demonetized on other social media sites. The Center’s study examined 200 prominent accounts on Rumble, selected from those with the most followers. As of June 2022, about eight-in-ten accounts (78%) were individuals while 21% were organizations. About a fifth of these prominent Rumble accounts (22%) have been banned or demonetized on other platforms.
A bar chart showing that a majority of prominent accounts across most alternative social media sites are connected to individuals without an organizational affiliation
  • Many prominent Rumble accounts maintain social media profiles on more established sites. Just over half of prominent accounts on Rumble (55%) promote accounts on other sites, including more established sites like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, as well as other alternative social media sites examined in the Center’s broader study. While 44% of prominent Rumble accounts promote their accounts on more established social media sites, only 16% do so on the other alternative social media sites studied.
  • Guns, abortion and LGBTQ issues were among the subjects that prominent Rumble accounts focused on in June 2022. A review of posts from these 200 prominent Rumble accounts found that about half posted about guns and gun rights (49%) or abortion (48%), 44% posted about LGBTQ issues, and 42% posted about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. These posts came amid widespread discussion of major events and issues that were regularly covered in the news at the time.
A bar chart showing that there was widespread discussion of issues such as guns, abortion and vaccines among prominent alternative social media accounts that posted in June

Reprinted with permission.