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Trump Media and Rumble file lawsuit against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice over free speech allegations

February 20, 2025 TruthUSA

The lawsuit accuses Justice Alexandre de Moraes of overstepping his legal authority by censoring social media posts by a Brazilian influencer.

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

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and Rumble Inc. submitted a 39-page lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Tampa, alleging that Justice de Moraes exceeded his authority and violated international law by attempting 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” who has sought political asylum in the United States, where he resides.

The lawsuit highlights that the blogger founded media outlets critical of Brazil’s supreme court and amassed a “sizable online following,” including a YouTube channel with over 1.3 million followers.

It states that the blogger frequently expressed support for Brazil’s previous administration under then-President Jair Bolsonaro.

“Under the guise of the Supreme Federal Tribunal of the Federative Republic of Brazil (‘STF’), Justice Moraes issued broad orders to suspend multiple U.S.-based accounts (‘Banned Accounts’) of a well-known politically outspoken user (‘Political Dissident A’), preventing individuals in the United States from viewing his content (‘Gag Orders’),” as stated in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit 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 claims 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 comply with Moraes’s orders.

The judge’s orders mandate Rumble to appoint a legal representative in Brazil “purely for accepting service of the Gag Orders and submitting to Justice Moraes’s authority,” as detailed in the lawsuit.

A ban on Rumble would disrupt Trump Media’s operations since the company relies, in part, on Rumble’s cloud-based hosting and video streaming infrastructure to provide multimedia content to Truth Social users, according to the companies’ claims in the legal filing.

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

“Allowing Justice Moraes to silence a vocal user on an American digital outlet would compromise our country’s fundamental commitment to open and robust debate,” the lawsuit asserts. “Neither extraterritorial decrees nor judicial overreach from abroad can supersede the freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution and law.”

Moraes is currently considering charges filed on Tuesday alleging that Bolsonaro orchestrated a scheme to overthrow the Brazilian government and undermine democracy following his 2022 election defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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

Bolsonaro’s attorney, Paulo Cunha Bueno, has refuted any wrongdoing by the ex-president and stated that the accusations lack factual basis.

“The President has never supported any movement intended to dismantle democratic rule of law or the institutions upholding it,” Cunha Bueno wrote in a statement on the social media platform X. “President Jair Bolsonaro has faith in the justice system and therefore believes this indictment will not succeed due to its weakness, inconsistency, and lack of evidential support in court.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

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