Another Rug Pull! Rokfin Goes Exclusively Premium | Maryam Henein Threatens to Sue Rokfin
Let's Check Back in for the 10th Time. How IS Rokfin Treating Independent Creators These Days? Yikes!
Rokfin Removes Creators’ Ability to Publish “Free to All”
Back in 2020 and 2021, Rokfin worked very hard to appeal to dissident independent journalists & livestreamers that were being censored and banned off YouTube for violating vague policies. These creators were having YouTube channels with thousands of subscribers permanently banned.
Rokfin promised that their content would never be censored & that the creators had the choice to either make their content available to paid subscribers only, or free to everyone.
I’ve documented Rokfin’s slide into breaking the promises they made to creators and the lack of addressing technical issues the past 5 years. Links are at the bottom of this piece.
MOST CONTENT (livestreams, articles, podcasts) Must Now Be Posted to Rokfin as “Premium”
Around June 1, 2025 Rokfin has removed creators’ ability to make each piece of their content free to anyone. Everything is now required to be behind their “Premium” paywall moving forward.
As reported by
of , when he and Ryan Cristián (from ) logged into their Rokfin Dashboard to go live last Friday, the option to make their livestream Free (vs only available to Premium paid monthly subscribers to the platform) was no longer there. They could ONLY make the stream available to Premium users.It apparently does not affect already posted content, so anything posted as Free to All will still be free (for now, at least).
This will likely spell the end for most independent creators on the platform. Journalist Whitney Webb stopped publishing her Unlimited Hangout podcast to her 85,000 Rokfin subscriber channel and seems to be abandoning the platform. Hard Lens Media stopped publishing there in March. Richard Medhurst hasn’t published there in 6 months. I commend these creators for recognizing the thievery of Rokfin’s RAE Token Rug Pull in February.
Strangely, it appears that only MintPress News can still publish videos to Rokfin without paywalling them behind the premium gate. Same with creators Tim Gaither and a channel called “History Homos.” It appears they upload content, as opposed to livestreaming.
Surprisingly, many creators have not abandoned Rokfin yet. Jimmy Dore, The Duran, Grand Theft World, Garland Nixon, Macroaggressions, Revolutionary Blackout Network, Sabby Sabs, Truthwire, Jason Bermas, Sam Tripoli, Grimerica and others have not stopped livestreaming or publishing clips there. It seems every one of their videos for the month of June are set to Premium. I’m not sure what kind of viewer or tip activity they’re still getting, or what rate they’re getting paid out at - or who’s still even watching there. All of those creators co-stream or upload to some combination of YouTube, Rumble, Odysee, Bitchute & Substack.
Apparently, these creators are not worried enough about being “Rug Pulled” - or about the lack of transparency/statements on monthly payouts since January 2024 - that they are still providing their content free to Rokfin to advertise & monetize.
The smartest thing for these creators to do would be to abandon the platform for platforms that are easier to collect & utilize payouts from & are more transparent about the process. They’re all publishing to multiple other monetized places already, as mentioned above. Rokfin is likely a minor source of income, if at all… Why bother at this point?
Maryam Henein (AKA BeeLady) Hires Lawyer, Demands Payment from Rokfin
In a post to X on June 9, independent journalist & livestreamer
announced she’s retained the services of the Glantz Law firm to pursue restitution for the RAE tokens allegedly paid to her, which she was never able to access or cash out. The RAE tokens, accumulated in the crypto wallet that Rokfin was paying to, lost all their value in February, when Rokfin sunset the crypto token they were using to pay out creators on the platform for years - without any notification to their creators. Full disclosure, I have offered to support this suit with background data in every way possible.She posted a copy of a letter sent to Rokfin by her attorneys on May 30.
A Brief Summary of Henein’s Case Against Rokfin
Rokfin claims to have delivered the RAE to a crypto wallet address provided by Henein.
Henein claims to have never provided that wallet address to Rokfin, therefore constituting some kind of negligence or fraud on Rokfin’s behalf.
Allegedly, Rokfin provided no record of payout, no monthly statements definitely not after January 2024.
By not checking to ensure the crypto was reaching the proper recipient, Rokfin dealt in negligent and possibly fraudulent business activities.
Henein is demanding payment equivalent to the value of her earnings - about $1,000 (which were never cashed out of a crypto wallet she allegedly never had access to).
At minimum, there are at least 3 other creators who were left with RAE in their wallets, which became worthless with no advance notice (AKA as a “Rug Pull”) when Rokfin sunset the RAE Token in February. It will be interesting to see if they join Maryam in the potential lawsuit.
These are the screen caps posted by Henein of the letter sent to Rokfin by her attorneys on May 30. Rokfin has yet to respond as of June 10, 2025 - according to Henein.
As has been the case consistently for the past year, Rokfin’s customer support & response time is completely unprofessional & unacceptable.
Read more about how we’ve been documenting Rokfin’s Downfall for months:
Sept 16: Rokfin, Video Publishing Platform: What Is Going On? Financial Trouble? A Sale?
Sept 16: Rokfin: Experiencing Technical Difficulties as a Video Platform
Sept 16: Rokfin: Crypto Challenges
Sept 17: Rokfin: Who Would Buy Them and Why?
Sept 26: Rokfin: What Is Going On? A Sale? Closing?
Oct 6: Rokfin October Update: Not Looking Good
Oct 15: Rumble Rants RIP OFF Creators | Rumble Gaming Launches | Sputnik US CLOSES | Rokfin Pays SHORT & STILL Ghosting INN
Feb 28: Rokfin's Bizarre Behavior
March 15: Substack Clipping Tool | New Restream Integrations with Kick & Rumble | Rokfin Zeroes Out More Creators' Followers | Indie's Tech Tips
Want to see more articles like this? Sound off below in the comments, share with your network on Notes and social media!
Support your favorite Independent Media creators! Indie Media Today and Indie News Network operate on a “Value for Value system.” Everything we do is free to all.
We don’t paywall our content, but we do need - and deeply appreciate - your support in order to keep running. One way to do that is with a monthly subscription here, if you feel you get value out of the shows & articles and want to help fund the media you want to see.
A monthly subscription on Ko-Fi helps us continue to produce quality shows & clips that challenge mainstream corporate narratives and amplify independent voices. We need your help!
Go to https://ko-fi.com/indienewsnetwork to contribute.
Indie’s Links:
⭐ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/indleft
INN Links:
⭐ Network Channels LinkTree: indienews.network
⭐ Network Members LinkTree: linktr.ee/innmembers
⭐ Substack: innnewsletter.com/
IndieNews Network (INN)
Hi! I’m Indie. I champion corporate-free independent media which challenges the narratives that cable & broadcast media push on behalf of advertisers.
Founder,
Publisher, Indie Media Today & INN Newsletter by Indie News Network
Producer, co-host & livestream engineer of multiple shows
Founder, the Indie Media Awards
Fiercely independent politically, anti-duopoly (or corporate UniParty).