Russell Brand has asked fans to turn their moral support into financial support as he’s feeling the pinch after being accused of raping and sexually assaulting four women, including a 16-year-old.
The scandal-scarred actor, 48, urged his followers to fork over $90 annually to become paying subscribers on Rumble — a video app that is a rival of YouTube – and is avowedly committed to free speech.
The brazen request came just hours after London’s Metropolitan Police had launched a full-scale investigation into “a number of allegations of sexual offences” against Brand, who has vehemently denied them.
The comedian claims it’s nothing more than a conspiracy to silence him and “independent media voices.”
“You now know that I have been demonetised on YouTube,” he said on Rumble Monday night, referencing the platform suspending his ability to cash in following the allegations against him. “Fully well aware that the government wrote to social media platforms to demand that I be further censored.”
“The global media war against free speech is in full swing, how do I know? Take a guess,” he continued.
“Today, of course, we’re talking about events of the last week but, in particular, the collusion between big tech and government and an apparent concerted effort by legacy media and now the state and big tech to silence independent media voices.”
“Obviously, it’s difficult for me to be entirely objective given the events of the past week but that’s what we’ll try to do,” the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star added.
“What we appear to be looking at here are a set of collaborating institutions that have an agenda, and pursue that agenda, even when in pursuing it they have to bypass, obstruct, or absolutely ignoring existing judicial or regulatory bodies by moving straight to punitive measures,” he shared.
On Monday, Scotland Yard — which houses the Metropolitan Police — announced that it has launched a police probe relating to the allegations made against Brand in London, as well as the rest of the UK.
The Met Police said the allegations were all non-recent, and Brand — who maintains his innocence — has not been charged with anything.
“Following an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches and The Sunday Times, the Met has received a number of allegations of sexual offences in London,” the police force said in a statement to The Post.
“We have also received a number of allegations of sexual offences committed elsewhere in the country and will investigate these.”
The Post has contacted Brand’s reps for comment.
Last week, the Met said it received one report of alleged sexual assault from 2003 and encouraged others to come forward.
Days later, Brand posted yet another video on social media in which he begged his fans for their support after what he described as a “distressing week.”
“Obviously, it’s been an extraordinary and distressing week and I thank you very much for your support and for questioning the information that you have been presented with,” Katy Perry’s ex-husband said Friday. “By now, you’re probably aware that the British government has asked big tech platforms to censor our online content and that some online platforms have complied with that request,” he added.
Last week, Brand uploaded a video to address “some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.”
“The relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual,” the actor and comedian claimed.
Brand went on to say the allegations stem from a time when he was “very, very promiscuous,” which he said he wrote “about extensively in my books.”
This story originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission