Trump Media and Rumble sue Brazil Supreme Court justice in censorship row – News

Donald Trump’s media group and the video platform Rumble today filed a joint lawsuit against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, accusing him of violating U.S. free speech protections.

The suit, filed in a federal court in Tampa, Florida, came just hours after Brazil’s ex-president Jair Bolsonaro was charged with attempting a coup after losing to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the 2022 election. The prosecution alleges there was a plan to poison Lula and shoot Moraes (pictured). If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison. Trump’s lawsuit could be an attempt to help Bolsonaro, who, like Trump, for years has complained about the alleged censorship of conservatives on social media.

The Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates Trump’s chosen social media platform, Truth Social, is joined by Rumble, a video-sharing platform that prides itself on advocating free expression. Rumble left Brazil late in 2023 after Moraes tried to enforce a ban on a number of creators and voices on the platform, what Rumble called unjust “censorship orders.”

Rather than pay substantial daily fines, Rumble left the country. It later returned, only to find itself at loggerheads with Moraes again after another order to take down one of its creators.

Notably, Elon Musk’s X Corp. was blocked in Brazil in 2024 when X refused to take down certain “far-right” voices, including political opposition. Moraes accused X of promulgating far-right misinformation and anti-democratic content and Musk likened Moraes to a dictator.

The lawsuit today is an effort to help Bolsonaro but also to put pressure on Brazil not to censor platforms. It claims Moraes violated First Amendment freedom of speech protections when he ordered the suspension of a “well-known politically outspoken user” of Rumble, with orders to suspend his U.S.-based account. The man fled to the U.S. in 2021 and despite extradition requests, has remained in the U.S.

“This case is a landmark battle for free speech in the digital age,” said Rumble Chief Executive 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 lawsuit also notes that Truth Social “relies on Rumble’s cloud-based hosting and video streaming infrastructure to deliver multimedia content to its user base” and a shutdown would interfere with Truth Social’s operations.

Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said his company is committed to free expression, adding that it is “proud to join our partner Rumble in standing against unjust demands for political censorship regardless of who makes them.”

Photo: Flickr