Rumble and TRUTH Social Sue Brazilian Judge Over Censorship Orders Targeting U.S. Users

LONGBOAT KEY, Fla, Feb. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --   Rumble (NASDAQ:RUM), the video-sharing platform and cloud services provider, today announced that it has filed a lawsuit along with the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG—owners of TRUTH Social) against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, alleging that Moraes violated the free speech protections of the First Amendment when he ordered the suspension of the U.S.-based accounts of a specific well-known, politically outspoken user. Rumble and TMTG filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and seek a declaration that de Moraes' orders are unenforceable in the United States. Neither Rumble nor TMTG have any entities, operations, employees, bank accounts, or businesses in Brazil.

"Allowing Justice Moraes to muzzle a vocal user on an American digital outlet would jeopardize our country's bedrock commitment to open and robust debate," the lawsuit reads. "Neither extraterritorial dictates nor judicial overreach from abroad can override the freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution and law."

Rumble and TMTG claim that not only do Moraes' orders violate U.S. public policy by undermining America's basic principle of free speech, but they also violate U.S. sovereignty by asserting that a Brazilian court can exercise jurisdiction over an American company engaged in U.S.-based activity without the consent of the U.S. government.

The Rumble user Moraes targeted with his gag order was identified in the complaint as Political Dissident A, a former priest and independent journalist who fled Brazil for the United States in 2021 after he was charged with various crimes for the simple act of giving voice to information that Moraes found upsetting and labeled "disinformation." The justice also issued an order for the political dissident's detention and attempted, unsuccessfully, to have him extradited to Brazil for trial for his alleged speech crimes.

"This case is a landmark battle for free speech in the digital age," said Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski. "In March 2024, the U.S. government formally rejected Brazil's request to extradite the political dissident, ruling that the charges were nothing more than 'crimes of opinion' and violated fundamental free speech protections. This should have ended Moraes' pursuit of the political dissident. Instead, he is now attempting to sidestep the U.S. legal system entirely—using secret censorship orders to pressure American companies into banning the political dissident worldwide."

"The United States has established legal processes for recognizing and enforcing foreign court orders, including Brazil, but those processes require review and approval by U.S. authorities," said Rumble's attorneys E. Martin De Luca & Matthew L. Schwartz of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.  "Alexandre de Moraes is attempting to sidestep U.S. law entirely. Rumble and Trump Media's lawsuit seeks the protection of a U.S. federal court to ensure that American businesses remain governed by American law and that no foreign court can unilaterally dictate what speech is allowed on American platforms without proper authorization from the U.S. government."

Justice Moraes has a troubling history of unlawful, authoritarian censorship of online platforms, including Rumble, which permit free speech on topics that do not meet his personal approval. In December 2023, he demanded that Rumble remove content from a certain creator on the platform. Rather than comply with this unlawful attack on free expression, Pavlovski elected to disable all access to the platform from within Brazil in protest.

Earlier this month, Justice Moraes abruptly rescinded its censorship order and Rumble restored access to the people of that country. But within days, Moraes became dissatisfied with Political Dissident A content and demanded that the dissident's account be suspended or else.

After the U.S. rejected his extradition request of Political Dissident A, Moraes sought to enforce his orders by requiring Brazilian lawyers previously affiliated with Rumble to facilitate service of his censorship directives. The lawsuit contends that this constitutes an improper attempt to manufacture jurisdiction over a U.S.-based company.

Pavlovski has publicly decried Moraes' heavy-handed censorship tactics before, including as a witness before the Global Human Rights Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs.

"We received requests from the Brazilian government to remove certain creators from our platform. The content did not violate our terms and conditions, but instead shared opinions that were ‘unpopular' in Brazil at the time," Pavlovski testified. "Every totalitarian regime that has crushed the rights of individuals, has sought to control what people can say and hear. It's never the good guys doing the censoring."

This case has broad implications for free speech and the jurisdictional limits of foreign courts. If foreign judges can extend their censorship rulings to U.S. companies, it raises serious concerns about international legal overreach and the application of First Amendment protections. The lawsuit seeks to ensure that U.S. companies remain governed by U.S. law and constitutional standards.

TMTG is a plaintiff in the suit because it relies on Rumble's back-end services for TRUTH Social, including cloud hosting and video streaming. These extraterritorial demands threaten to erase lawful American speech and disrupt TRUTH Social's core functionality within the United States. 

ABOUT RUMBLE

Rumble is a high-growth video platform and cloud services provider, founded in 2013 by entrepreneur Chris Pavlovski, which is creating an independent infrastructure intended to make it impervious to cancellation or censorship by Big Tech. In the most recent numbers publicly available, Rumble, which went public in September 2022, reported 67 million Monthly Active Users in the 3rd Quarter of 2024, up from 53 million the previous quarter, or an increase of 26%.

On Election Night 2024, concurrent viewers peaked at a record of nearly 1.8 million, according to StreamCharts. Following the election, the Rumble app reached #3 in the Apple App Store in the Photo & Video category, ahead of YouTube. Rumble's mission is to restore the internet to its roots by making it free and open once again.

For more information, visit: corp.rumble.com.

Contact: [email protected]