STUPID GAMES, STUPID PRIZES

Bongino Bans Advertiser That Fretted Over COVID Misinfo on His ‘Free Speech’ Video Platform

The “free-speech” warrior has banned an advertiser that reportedly expressed concerns over COVID-19 misinformation on his video platform.

One must always seek to “own the libs.”

That is the modus operandi for Fox News host Dan Bongino, who, in his latest example of ostensible lib-owning, has mounted a war against an advertising firm that expressed concerns over coronavirus misinformation on Rumble, the video streaming platform the conservative pundit was an early-stage investor in.

Last week, Bongino shared during his daily podcast that he had warned Tremor International, a multinational advertising firm, to “retract” their claims about misinformation or face a “ban” from his site. “The video platform Rumble announced the termination of its relationship with the Unruly Group and Tremor International after they attempted to censor Dan Bongino,” a Rumble press release noted at the time.

“If you are doing business with Unruly or Tremor, your ads will not be being placed on Rumble,” Bongino added on his program.

Tremor International never put out any retraction or statement and was thus banned from Rumble. “A company tried to play stupid games with us… and they’re going to win stupid prizes,” Bongino explained, failing to square a “ban” with a free speech platform.

It remains somewhat unclear exactly what Tremor said initially to draw Bongino’s ire, but according to the Fox host, the firm cited complaints from partners over the video platform’s lax approach to handling COVID-related misinformation and pulled some of its ads.

The move was akin to “cancel culture” in Rumble’s eyes, as the company’s press release accused Tremor of attempting to “censor” Bongino: “We won’t tolerate politicized attempts to cancel creators,” wrote Rumble’s CEO, Chris Pavlovski.

Notably, in going up against Tremor, Bongino is taking on a firm that is in part still owned by News Corp, the media company owned by Fox News mogul Rupert Murdoch. Bongino, News Corp, and Tremor International did not return multiple requests from The Daily Beast for comment.

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During his Wednesday show, Bongino indicated his war on Tremor would not stop at banning the firm and publicly blasting it. He boasted about the prospects of the company running into trouble selling its ads elsewhere. “If you’re Unruly and Tremor, I’d would like to see your sales pitch to people selling products,” Bongino said, claiming the firm would subsequently face an uphill battle selling to “free-speech lovers” after running foul of Rumble.

Bongino further claimed this would not be the “last time” Rumble takes action to ban an advertiser. The Fox host added: “Believe me, we will be just fine.”

The Tremor ban followed news that Rumble is now teaming up with Trump’s Truth Social platform.

“There’s overlap. Rumble is hosting a Truth Social mail server,” Andrew Morris, founder and CEO of the cybersecurity firm GreyNoise, told The Daily Beast in early December. “The server is not in use but it is a valid one. This email domain name was set up by the operators of Truth Social and it was in collaboration with Rumble.”

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Zachary PetrizzoFormer Politics Reporter

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