BRASILIA/SAO PAULO : Brazil’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered the suspension of U.S. video-sharing platform Rumble in the country, citing its failure to comply with court orders, in a similar path to the one faced by Elon Musk’s X last year.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who also spearheaded the country’s tussle with X, said the suspension will last until the platform names a legal representative for Brazil and complies with other orders including the payment of pending fines, a court decision showed.
Rumble, which in 2021 received an investment from a venture capital firm co-founded by JD Vance, now the U.S. vice president, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a decision on Wednesday, Moraes had ordered Rumble to appoint legal representation within 48 hours under risk of immediate suspension. Brazilian law requires foreign companies to have a legal representative to operate there.
Rumble cut access to users in Brazil in 2023, citing court orders to deactivate accounts for some creators, which it vowed to challenge.
The platform, however, went back online in the country early this year. CEO Chris Pavlovski said Brazil had moved “to rescind their censorship order on Rumble,” without explaining.
In Moraes’ latest decision, the judge ordered Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Anatel, to take the needed measures to fully suspend Rumble in the country within 24 hours.
Anatel said in a statement that service providers had been made aware of the ruling and that it would monitor compliance.
ACCOUNT TO BE BLOCKED
Moraes said he ordered Rumble on February 9 to block the account of Allan dos Santos, a digital influencer close to former President Jair Bolsonaro, and suspend the monetization of his profile.
Brazilian courts notified a lawyer at Moraes’ request, but the law firm later clarified it did not represent Rumble in the country.
Dos Santos, who currently lives in the United States, is considered a fugitive in Brazil, as there is a warrant out for his arrest as part of investigations into the spreading of misinformation and hate.
Rumble and U.S. President Donald Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group earlier this week sued Moraes in Florida over accusations of illegal censorship, saying his orders censor legitimate political discourse in the United States.
Rumble alleged that Moraes violated free speech protections of the United States when he ordered the suspension of the “U.S.-based accounts of a specific well-known, politically outspoken user.” It did not name the person.
Pavlovski has said on X that the firm would not comply with orders coming from Moraes, which he called “illegal.”
Moraes, in his Friday ruling, argued that Pavlovski “deliberately confuses censorship with the constitutional prohibition of hate speech and the incitement of anti-democratic acts.”
The judge is also weighing charges brought against Bolsonaro earlier this week, which allege he led a plot to overthrow Brazil’s government and undermine the country’s democracy after his 2022 election loss.
