Russell Brand posted a new video across his social media channels on Friday after facing allegations of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse.

The clip is his first public comment since the initial accusations were published in an investigation by the Sunday Times and U.K. TV news show, Dispatches last weekend.

“I’s been an extraordinary and distressing week,” said Brand, who did not address the claims directly in Friday’s three-minute video. Instead, Brand accused the Trusted News Initiative — a partnership between global organizations like the BBC, AP, European Broadcasting Union, Financial Times, Google/YouTube, Meta, Microsoft, and The Washington Post designed to tackle disinformation — of being a “collaboration between big tech and legacy media organizations to target, control, choke and shut down independent media organizations like this one.”

Brand spent the rest of the video promoting an upcoming Rumble episode where he promised to cover the “deep state and corporate collusion,” “military industrial complex,” big pharma, media corruption, and censorship.

The podcaster pleaded with supporters, saying he needs them “now more than ever and more than I ever imagined I would.”

Last weekend, the Times and Dispatches both reported that four women had accused Brand of rape and sexual assaults occurring between 2008 and 2013. Soon after, his agent dropped him and his U.K. book publisher chose to pause Brand-related releases. Police in the U.K. later stated that they had received another sexual assault allegation.

Trending

Before the article published and the episode released, Brand preemptively defended himself on social media against forthcoming “extremely egregious and aggressive attacks” that he “absolutely refutes.”

This week, a woman also accused Brand of exposing himself to her and then laughing about it during his BBC radio show in 2008.