Candace Owens
Owens isn’t entirely new to the conspiracy theory game. She’s been spreading conspiracy theories for years and is now facing a major defamation lawsuit after launching an “investigative series” alleging that first lady of France Brigitte Macron is secretly a transgender woman.
“I like conspiracy theories because I view them as mind yoga,” said Owens in a 2023 edition of The Daily Wire’s Candace Owens. “It's very important to bend your mind like a pretzel sometimes to make sure that you actually have a mind.”
And her mind is certainly bent.
Owens’ conspiracy theories have dramatically escalated since the assassination of her friend, the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. While her theories about Kirk's death are labyrinthine, our colleague Matt Gertz explained the gist last year: “Owens has been claiming since Charlie Kirk’s tragic killing in September that at the time of his death, he was coming around to her view of Israel. Based on that premise (which Kirk allies deny), she has speculated that Kirk may have been assassinated by pro-Israel henchmen worried that he was turning on them, perhaps with help from elements within TPUSA and the U.S. military.”
She has recently increasingly turned her fire on his widow, Erika Kirk, and is launching a multi-episode docuseries, Bride of Charlie.
Owens has been facing immense backlash from her former allies. Among many others, Ben Shapiro has called her a “conspiratorial, evil person” who “is either going through the throes of mental illness or ... she's a sick human being, or both.” Popular streamer Tim Pool once asked on his show, “How much money has Candace Owens made milking the assassination of Charlie Kirk with lies, hypocrisy, innuendo, and crackpot conspiracies?”
Based on her explosive audience growth, the answer is probably “a lot.”
A Media Matters analysis of several of Owens’ accounts on streaming, podcast, and social media platforms found that she has grown her follower and subscriber base by 80 percent since January 1, 2025, adding at least 10.9 million. (Some of the data in this analysis was collected from Social Blade.)
Owens regularly streams or uploads her show on YouTube, Rumble, and Spotify, where she has nearly 5.9 million subscribers, 513,000 followers, and 741,000 followers, respectively. (Apple Podcasts does not publicly provide follower counts on its platform, so it was not included.) Her growth on these streaming and podcast platforms since January 1, 2025 includes:
- Over 2.5 million added subscribers on YouTube, or 76 percent growth.
- At least 248,000 added followers on Rumble, or 94 percent growth.
- At least 435,000 added followers on Spotify, or 142 percent
- growth.
Owens also maintains a presence on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, where she often amplifies show content, including by sharing clips as short-form Reels and TikTok videos. On these platforms, she has 7.5 million, nearly 3.1 million, and 6.8 million followers, respectively. Her growth on these social media platforms since January 1, 2025 includes:
- At least 1.7 million added followers on Facebook, or 31 percent growth.
- At least 2.4 million added followers on Instagram, or 415 percent growth.
- At least 3.5 million added followers on TikTok, or 106 percent growth.
Graph by Molly Butler for Media Matters
Owens’ reach extends far past her follow count. Her YouTube channel has earned nearly 805 million views since January 1, 2025, or over 57 million monthly views on average. She has also garnered 81.2 million likes on TikTok during this period.
Her individual videos on Instagram Reels and TikTok regularly garner millions of views. For example, her most recent Bride of Charlie trailer has over 5.7 million views on Reels, over 1.8 million views on TikTok, and over 1.3 million views on YouTube. Rather than alienating her new audience, Owens’ increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories seem to positively correlate with her growth.
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters
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- “Charlie just go for it…”: Candace Owens revealed she encouraged Charlie Kirk to pursue Erika despite early hesitation - The Times of India ›
- I helped create Candace Owens. It's my biggest regret. For the first time, I'm spilling her humiliating private confession to me... it tells you everything | Daily Mail Online ›
- Candace Owens’ latest conspiracy target is Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow - The Washington Post ›
