Russell Brand complained about enduring an “extraordinary and distressing week” after being accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse.
In a video posted to his multiple social media channels Friday, the comedian thanked his supporters for “questioning the information that [they] have been presented with” recently.
However, it’s unclear what “information” he was referring to when he posted his video.
Brand then went on to rant about censorship as he had just been suspended from making money on YouTube due to the allegations.
“By now, you’re probably aware that the British government have asked big tech platforms to censor our online content. Some online platforms, have complied with that request,” he started before explaining that the online Safety Bill has been censoring content on the web.
“I also don’t imagine that you’ve heard of the trusted news initiative and now, as often is the case when a word like trusted is used as part of an acronym to describe an unelected body, trust is the last thing you should be offering,” he continued.
“The trusted news initiative is a collaboration between big tech and legacy media organizations to target, patrol, choke and shut down independent media organizations.”
He then encouraged fans to follow him on Rumble and watch his show on a platform that encouraged free speech.
Brand’s choice of words came after four women spoke out last week claiming that the 48-year-old sexually assaulted them at the height of his career.
The incidents, which allegedly took place between 2006 and 2013, were included in a bombshell exposé in the Sunday Times as well as a TV special from Channel 4’s Dispatchers.
One of the accusers claimed the actor raped her — allegedly without a “condom” — “against a wall” in his Los Angeles home in 2012.
She allegedly confronted Brand about the situation via text, telling him that “When a girl say[s] NO it means no.”
To which he allegedly replied, “Very sorry.” Screenshots of the alleged texts were published in the report. The woman also included medical records showing that she went to a rape center the day after the alleged incident.
Meanwhile, a second woman claimed she was just 16 when she was allegedly assaulted by then-31-year-old Brand.
She claimed that she and the “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” actor were in a three-month-long “emotionally abusive and controlling” relationship which eventually ended after she allegedly discovered him cheating on her with another woman.
However, before that, Brand allegedly once “forced his penis down her throat” until she gagged. She allegedly had to punch him in order for him to stop, per the report.
Two other women also shared incidents in which Brand, who was married to Katy Perry from 2010 until 2012, allegedly sexually assaulted them.
However, Brand vehemently denied the allegations before the report even came out.
“Amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” he said in a video message, before claiming that all of the relationships were “consensual.”
Yet since the bombshell report was published, several disturbing old videos of the comedian talking about rape and underage children have resurfaced online.
In a 2007 clip from his BBC radio show, “The Russell Brand Show,” the comedian told a young female that she should have a sex-themed 16th birthday party because she was turning the legal age of consent in the UK.
He also suggested that she make it a masked ball because it is “erotic but in a suppressed, suitable way for a 16-year-old girl.”
In another jarring interview from 2013, Brand said that he “raped someone once” and then “killed her after.”
In the same interview, which has since been scrubbed from the internet, Brand also joked about the ancient Greeks having sex with children.
Most recently, another woman came forward claiming that Brand once exposed himself to her while they were at work.
The woman, who chose to remain anonymous, alleged that Brand “pulled out his flaccid penis on his hand and served it to [her] as if you would be serving someone some food” while allegedly cornering her in a bathroom.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
