British comedian and actor Russell Brand on Friday posted a video on his social media, in his first public comments since rape and assault allegations were aired against him. In the video, he described the allegations of rape and sexual assault against him in the past week as “extraordinary and distressing” while accusing the government of seeking to censor him.Russel posted a video of himself on his YouTube channel and X account where he recollected the week and also thanked his fans and supporters for “questioning the information you are being presented with”, in his first public comments since the allegations were published.“Obviously its been an extraordinary and distressing week and I thank you very much for your support and for questioning the information you are being presented with,” he said in a video posted to his YouTube channel, which has 6.64 million subscribers. He also posted the video on his official X (formerly Twitter) account.“I need your support now more than ever, more than I ever imagined I would,” he added.So… pic.twitter.com/UXxQqQukDb— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) September 22, 2023 Sexual charges against Russell BrandAccording to media reports, four women had made claims of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse against Russell. He has, however, not made any comment on this issue in the video he posted.Last week, Brand (48) denied the allegations against him which are said to have taken place between 2006 and 2013.He also said that all his relationships have been consensual”, even during a period when he admitted he was “very, very promiscuous”Censorship of contentIn the three-minute video, he claimed that moves to block him from receiving advertising revenue for his videos on social media platforms after sexual assault allegations occurred. Brand also criticised the British government for asking tech companies to take action against him.“By now youre 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”, he said.While talking about independent media he said “The trusted news initiative is a collaboration between big tech and legacy media organisations to target, control, choke and shut down independent media organisations like this one.”“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 its a law that has already been passed,” Russel added.UK Government speaksThe British government have also spoken about the sexual allegations against Brand. A spokesperson from Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks office called these allegations “very serious and concerning”.He also said that the PM Sunak “has been clear there should never be any space for harassment, regardless of where it is found”.
