Russell Brand has thanked his supporters for “questioning” the allegations of rape and sexual assault made against him.
The 48-year-old has strongly denied accusations made by four women in an investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
In the three-minute clip, posted on YouTube, Rumble and X, Brand said the week since the claims were published had been “extraordinary and distressing”.
He said: “I thank you very much for your support and for questioning the information that you’ve been presented with.”
He did not directly address the claims made against him and lashed out at the Government, big tech companies and media organisations.
He claimed moves to prevent him making advertising revenue from his content on social media platforms came “in the context of the Online Safety Bill”, which aims to tackle harmful content on the internet.
The Bill, which was years in the drafting, recently cleared Parliament and awaits royal assent to pass into law.
In the video, in which he addressed his followers as “awakening wonders”, he said: “By now you’re probably aware that the British Government have asked big tech platforms to censor our online content and that some online platforms have complied with that request.
“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 has already been passed.”
Brand said he would return to his regular show on Rumble – an online video platform which refused to follow YouTube in blocking the comedian from earning advertising revenue on its site.
Brand described the streaming site as having made a “clear commitment to free speech”.
Referring to mainstream media organisations, he said: “It’s clear that these organisations collaborate in constructing narratives, whether it’s about the war or the pandemic, and of course there are other examples.
“It is very clear to me that we have to be very, very cautious indeed.”
The video was posted just moments before Newsnight aired on BBC Two with fresh accusations about the former Hollywood actor’s behaviour.
Cole Parker, who worked with Brand between 2000 and 2002, claimed that models were often warned by their agents about the comedian.
He has not responded to the latest claims made in the interview in which Parker told Newsnight he was “surprised” details were not made public sooner.
He said: “A lot of the modelling agents would sit down and tell their models, tell their stable, warn them about him.
“Things like people go back to his house and they fool around and then if they didn’t want to go all the way, he had a reputation for sometimes getting angry or a bit nasty if people wouldn’t sleep with him the first time.
“And given the fact that he was a celebrity, very good-looking man, very funny, he didn’t really need to sort of operate that way.
“There would have been plenty of people who would have been happy to get themselves involved in a dalliance with him, he didn’t have to go with people who were reluctant to do so.”
Asked if he was surprised by the allegations, he added: “I’m surprised it didn’t come out sooner, I’m surprised at the moment that it’s only four of them.”
By By Scott D'Arcy, Luke O'Reilly and Joseph Draper, PA
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