Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. (TMTG) joined video platform Rumble in a lawsuit against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
The lawsuit alleges that Moraes attempted to force Rumble to censor the account of a U.S.-based Brazilian user.
“Rumble and TMTG bring this action to stop Justice Moraes’s ultra vires attempts to illegally censor American companies operating primarily on American soil,” the lawsuit says, adding that Moraes “issued sweeping orders to suspend multiple U.S.-based accounts (‘Banned Accounts’) of a well-known politically outspoken user (‘Political Dissident A’), ensuring no person in the United States can see his content (‘Gag Orders’).”
The gag orders “censor legitimate political discourse in the United States, undermining fundamental constitutional protections enshrined in the First Amendment, clashing with the Communications Decency Act, and defying basic comity principles. The Gag Orders further require Rumble, a Florida-based company with no personnel or assets in Brazil, to designate a legal representative in Brazil solely for the purpose of accepting service of the Gag Orders and submitting to Justice Moraes’s authority,” the filing explains.
“Truth Social relies on Rumble’s cloud-based hosting and video streaming infrastructure to deliver multimedia content to its user base,” the lawsuit notes. “If Rumble were to be shut down, that shut down would necessarily interfere with Truth Social’s operations, as well.”
TMTG CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes said in a statement that the company is “firmly committed to upholding the right to free expression. This is not just a slogan, it’s the core mission of this company. We’re proud to join our partner Rumble in standing against unjust demands for political censorship regardless of who makes them.”
Moraes previously called for social media platform X to be suspended. Following its August suspension, those who continued using the platform through a VPN were fined $9,000 USD a day. X returned to Brazil in October.
