Trump Media, Rumble Sue Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alleging Free Speech Violations

Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes speaks during a session in Brasilia, Brazil, on June 18, 2024. Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s media group and Rumble Inc. filed a lawsuit on Feb. 19 against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, accusing him of violating the free speech rights of an unnamed Brazilian influencer living in the United States.

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and Rumble Inc. filed the 39-page lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Tampa, alleging that the judge exceeded his authority and violated international law by trying to shut down the U.S.-based accounts of the Brazilian blogger.

TMTG operates the social media platform Truth Social, and Rumble Inc. owns the video-sharing platform Rumble. The complaint identifies the blogger as “Political Dissident A” and states that he has “sought political asylum in the United States, where he remains.”

According to the legal filing, the unnamed individual is known for founding media outlets critical of Brazil’s supreme court and has built a “sizable online following,” including a YouTube channel with more than 1.3 million followers.

The lawsuit states that the blogger regularly voiced support for Brazil’s previous administration under then-President Jair Bolsonaro.

“Acting under the guise of the Supreme Federal Tribunal of the Federative Republic of Brazil (‘STF’), Justice Moraes has 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 lawsuit states.

It adds that the gag orders issued by the judge “censor legitimate political discourse” in the United States and undermine constitutional protections enshrined in the First Amendment.

Rumble Faced Daily Fine, Lawsuit States

The lawsuit further alleges that the gag orders conflict with the Communications Decency Act, which grants legal immunity to providers of interactive computer services for content created by others on their platforms.

According to the lawsuit, Florida-based Rumble faces a fine of $9,000 a day and a shutdown of its service in Brazil if it doesn’t abide by Moraes’s orders.

The judge’s orders require Rumble 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 lawsuit states.

A ban on Rumble would interfere with Trump Media’s operations because the company relies, in part, on Rumble’s cloud-based hosting and video streaming infrastructure to deliver multimedia content to Truth Social users, the companies claim in the legal filing.

Rumble and TMTG are asking the court to declare Moraes’s gag orders unenforceable in the United States.

“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 states. “Neither extraterritorial dictates nor judicial overreach from abroad can override the freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution and law.”

Moraes is currently weighing charges filed on Feb. 18 alleging that Bolsonaro led a plot to overthrow the Brazilian government and undermine democracy after his 2022 election loss to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

A total of 33 people were charged this week alongside Bolsonaro, including several high-ranking officials from his former administration, such as his former national security adviser, retired Gen. Augusto Heleno, and former Navy Commander Almir Garnier Santos.

Bolsonaro’s lawyer, Paulo Cunha Bueno, has denied any wrongdoing by the former president and said the charges lacked facts.

“The President has never supported any movement aimed at dismantling the democratic rule of law or the institutions that uphold it,” Cunha Bueno wrote in a statement on social media platform X. “President Jair Bolsonaro trusts in the justice system and therefore believes that this indictment will not prevail due to its fragility, inconsistency, and lack of factual basis to support it in court.”

Reuters contributed to this report.