MAGA-influencers on X have called for a boycott of Dunkin’ Donuts after the chief executive of the video platform Rumble alleged that the fast-food chain declined to advertise with it because “the right wing culture of the site is too polarizing.”
Rumble is joining Elon Musk’s social media company, X, formerly Twitter, in suing a group of advertisers over allegations that they withheld business from the social media firms because of the right-wing content hosted on their platforms.
On Wednesday, Rumble chief executive Chris Pavlovski wrote on X that the company approached Dunkin’ Donuts and its parent company, Inspire Brands, to consider placing advertising on the site because its audience “over indexes with coffee consumption.”
Pavlovski posted a screenshot of what appeared to be a redacted email reply from the company: “To be honest, [redacted] I would be opposed to showing up on the current version of the platform—the right wing culture of the site is too polarizing from a brand suitability standpoint today.”
The screenshot did not show who sent the email, but Pavlovski’s post implied it was from an advertising executive at Dunkin’ Donuts or Inspire Brands, which also owns Arby’s and Sonic Drive-In.
The social media firm alleges that advertisers organized to withhold advertising from Rumble because it is home to several prominent pundits who have been permanently barred from most other mainstream platforms.
Rumble hosts Alex Jones, who was ordered to pay almost $1 billion to the families of Sandy Hook victims after he spent years defaming them by saying their children had not been murdered but were instead “crisis actors.” It also hosts Nick Fuentes, who once claimed only 200,000 or 300,000 people died in the Holocaust and said of Jewish people, “We will make them die in the holy war.”
On Wednesday, #BoycottDunkinDonuts was the first or second biggest trending topic on X for 5hours.
On X, the account @catturd2 wrote: “They thought they could bully Rumble into dropping their biggest podcasts behind the scenes. I know this for a fact. It’s time to BudLight- @dunkindonuts.”
The MAGA influencer added: “Boycott them. We have to stick together.” As of Thursday morning, the post has been viewed more than 360,000 times.
User @GuntherEagleman, another MAGA influencer, wrote in a post that has since garnered more than 631,00 views, “Boycott Dunkin Donuts …!”
“Time to give Dunkin’ Donuts the Bud Light treatment. Go Woke, Go Broke,” user @iAnonPatriot wrote in a post that has been viewed more than 170,000 times.
Bud Light saw a drop in sales and a decrease in the stock price of its parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, because of a conservative boycott of the product in April 2023.
The boycott was in reaction to Bud Light sending personalized cans of beer to social media personality Dylan Mulvaney, who is transgender and began publicly identifying as a woman in 2022.
I will join whatever Boycott necessary to get our Country back.