Free speech red lines drawn - Rumble CEO

In a post sent to its millions of newsletter subscribers, the head of the video-sharing platform and cloud services provider contends that the decision taken by the Brazil Supreme Federal Court to ban Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is yet another clear indication that powerful government elites want to control the broadcasting of information on the internet.

Pavlovski wrote: “I don't typically send messages to our users through email, but red lines have been crossed. There have been major developments with free speech platforms, and I feel it’s important to let everyone know what is going on and how you can help Rumble.

“Rumble is no longer available to the citizens of Brazil, joining the ranks of France, Russia, and China. From media reports, Brazil no longer has Elon Musk's X due to attacks on free speech by Alexandre De Moreas, a justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court.

“World powers don’t want Rumble, they don’t want X, they don’t want Telegram, and they don't want Truth Social. They want to control information, but our companies won’t let them.

“There are no other large companies fighting for freedom like we are. We put everything on the line for it, and the Telegram CEO was recently arrested for it.

“Advertisers boycott our companies to try and cut our economic lifeline, but they underestimate our support among the people.

“The people keep us alive and keep us going.”

Just over a week ago CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov was arrested and charge in France for what authorities deemed for complicity by allegedly allowing criminal activities to persist on the platform without moderation. It’s a claim Telegram has rejected, arguing that its content moderation abides by industry standards and European laws.

Many influential figures such as tech billionaire Elon Musk, Andrew Tate and the Russian government have condemned the arrest of Russian-born Durov.

Ironically in May of this year Rumble was banned in Russia after it refused to give in to the state’s censorship demands related to images emerging from the ongoing   conflict in the Ukraine.

Many industry experts and free speech advocates believe governments around the globe are desperately trying to control the vast influence of social media platforms through legislation.

Meantime Pavlovski has seemingly seized the opportunity to increase its revenue, urging subscribers to join its paid service Rumble Premium, which he calls a game-changer in its “fight for freedom of expression”.

For its second quarter report for 2024 Rumble recorded sequential revenue growth of 27% to $22.5 million, while global average monthly users rose to 53 million.