Odysee accused Rumble of generating fake traffic https://archive.ph/aBukJ. In response, Rumble sent a letter to Odysee, threatening to sue if they don't remove the tweet https://archive.ph/jOQCo
Odysee removed the tweet, but then left this snarky non-apology https://archive.vn/TLQdA
Pretending to have higher engagement by falsely boosting numbers in order to to retain and increase customers is a tactic that has been used by some social media companies during their critical early period. I'm not convinced by Odysee's very limited evidence that Rumble has been doing this however, and Rumble would be in significant legal trouble if it was caught lying, since it is acquiring external funding.
All the big boys in tech have used bots to boost engagement, and alt-tech shouldn't be tying their own hands over some misguided principles when they are currently engaged in total war. But, Rumble going public will, at best, make it into controlled opposition, if it isn't already, so these attacks from Odysee are also justified.
I think it’s dumb, and would rather they not do that, but I can see why Rumble has an incentive to do it since they are going public now.
I don't care if alt-tech does or doesn't use bots, as long as they can continue stealing marketshare from progressives.