The Metropolitan Police have launched an official investigation into Russell Brand right after the ex-Hollywood actor live-streamed on Rumble Monday refuting all of the sexual assault claims against him.
In the video entitled, ARE WE BEING SILENCED!? The Battle For Free Speech, Brand stated that “he’s the victim of a conspiracy to silence him” to his 1.42 million audience.
Within an hour of the video going live, the Met released a statement that said, “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," according to the Daily Mail.
“We have also received a number of allegations of sexual offences committed elsewhere in the country and will investigate these.” They noted that “The offences are all non-recent.”
Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy of the Met’s Central Specialist Crime Command said: "We continue to encourage anyone who believes they may have been a victim of a sexual offence, no matter how long ago it was, to contact us.”
“We understand it can feel like a difficult step to take and I want to reassure that we have a team of specialist officers available to advise and support.”
A spokesperson from the Met clarified that no arrests have been made and also encouraged “anyone who wants to report an offense” to contact police on their non-emergency line.
Brand first addressed the allegations publicly in a video posted to YouTube on Friday in which he thanked those who have been “questioning the information that you have been presented with.”
Speaking to the requests for Brand’s demonetization on platforms such as Rumble, he continued “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.”
Online outrage quickly ensued after the letter to Rumble was made public, calling for Caroline Dinenage, chair of the House of Commons media committee, who sent the letters to resign. Rumble did not comply and released a letter defending the comedian.
Brand clarified, “What you may not know is that this happens in the context of the online safety bill which is a piece of UK legislation that grants sweeping surveillance and censorship powers and it's a law that's already been passed.”
“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.”
“The trusted news initiative is a collaboration between big tech and legacy media organisations to target, patrol, choke and shut down independent media organisations, like this one.”
