MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

De Moraes suspends Rumble in Brazil

An almighty judge in Brazil, De Moraes faces censorship charges in the US

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice (STF) Alexandre De Moraes Friday suspended the social network Rumble from South America's largest country after the company remained without a legal representative past the given deadline following the resignation of the previous legal team and the network's failure to appoint a replacement.

In his decision, De Moraes cited that the CEO of the Rumble, Chris Pavlovski, published on the social network X that he would not comply with the legal determinations of the STF.

“Chris Pavlovski confuses freedom of expression with a non-existent freedom of aggression, deliberately confuses censorship with constitutional prohibition to hate speech and incitement to anti-democratic acts, ignoring the teachings of one of the greatest libertarians in defense of freedom of expression in history, John Stuart Mill,” the judge wrote.

The suspension was made in the process involving the arrest and extradition of blogger Allan dos Santos, who has been accused of disseminating attacks against members of the STF. He currently lives in the United States.

According to De Moraes, despite the determination of the suspension of the profiles on social networks, dos Santos continues to create new pages to continue “committing crimes.”

The magistrate also stressed that Rumble has been used for “dissemination of various hate speeches, attacks on democracy and incitement to disrespect the national Judiciary.”

“The apex of this instrumentalization contributed to the attempted coup d'état and attack against the democratic institutions that occurred on January 8, 2023 - the Selma Festival - as can be seen in the constantly highlighted sections of the votes I have pronounced in more than 237 convictions in criminal actions already judged by the plenary,” De Moraes added.

De Moraes instructed National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) President Carlos Manuel Baigorri to adopt the necessary measures within 24 hours. Rumble's suspension will be valid until all the previous orders of suspension of profiles are complied with, the fines already applied are paid and the legal representative in Brazil is constituted, as determined by the legislation.

Meanwhile, a censorship complaint against De Moraes has been filed by US President Donald Trump, who accused the judge of “censoring” platforms and suspending user accounts.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)