How Rumble went from a family-friendly Canadian startup to a megaphone for U.S. election deniers

Steven Crowder has big plans for election night. The far-right commentator says he will livestream his show on the video-sharing platform Rumble until a winner is declared.

Crowder, who routinely airs debunked claims of voter fraud, believes that could take days or weeks, potentially making his the "longest-lasting election night livestream in internet history."

He is promising the Nov. 5 show will highlight "election anomalies coast-to-coast," reported to him by "undercover" journalists and volunteer poll watchers.

The livestream will also feature appearances by other pundits known for spreading electoral disinformation, including Alex Jones, Dan Bongino and Tim Pool — all of whom have their own popular channels on Rumble, with a collective following of 3.8 million.

Rumble founder and CEO Chris Pavlovski said in a news release his company is "excited to capitalize" on this kind of content.

Non-partisan election watchdog groups in the U.S. have been increasingly vocal this electoral cycle about efforts by right-wing and other pro-Trump activists to interfere with the voting process, which have included documented attempts to pare down voter rolls and influence the certification process. 

This interference campaign is fuelled by the rampant disinformation found on social media sites like Rumble, said Ishan Mehta, director of the media and democracy program at Common Cause, a voting rights advocacy group.

"I think myths and disinformation are the main root causes of many of the problems we see with our electoral process," Mehta said.

While much of the recent concern has been directed at X, the site formerly known as Twitter run by Elon Musk, an avid supporter of Republican candidate Donald Trump, Rumble has quietly emerged as an important player in the disinformation ecosystem.

"I don't know that there's been enough attention on Rumble and its role overall in this election," said Katie Harbath, who worked on public policy and elections at Facebook before starting a tech consulting firm.

Started in Toronto in 2013, Rumble was once mainly known as a site where you could find wholesome pet videos. 

But as the company struggled to establish a foothold in a digital economy dominated by big tech, it was courted by pro-Trump financiers, such as Peter Thiel.

With their backing, Pavlovski transformed the site into a platform where extremists, conspiracy theorists and election deniers who were unwelcome elsewhere on the internet can flourish. 

Before launching Rumble, Pavlovski ran a humour website called Jokeroo, which he started from his parents' home in Brampton, Ont., in 2001.