The platform argues that the state's actions amount to “censorship plain and simple,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Daily Wire. Rumble contends that California is compelling the platform to alter its own content and that of its users. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal organization, lodged the lawsuit on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division.
The lawsuit directly confronts California's perceived attack on free speech through laws that penalize political opinion, which Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) labels as protection against the “harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content.”
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According to The Post Millennial, California’s AB 2655, the “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” is so intrusive, the lawsuit argues, that it effectively “deputizes” Rumble to restrict or limit the free speech of its users, as stated by the ADF. AB 2839, “Protecting Democracy Against Election Disinformation and Deepfakes,” is designed to regulate what social media users can say about elections. The ADF has previously represented the Babylon Bee, a satirical news site, in a lawsuit over the right to publish and share political parody.
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ADF senior counsel Phil Sechler told The Daily Wire, “California’s war against political speech is censorship, plain and simple,” adding, “We can’t trust the government to decide what is true in our online political debates.”
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Chris Pavlovski, Chairman and CEO of Rumble, expressed his concern about the government's potential role in regulating political speech. He said, “The very thought of the government judging the content of political speech, and then deciding whether it should be permitted, censored, or eliminated altogether is about the most chilling thing you could imagine.” Pavlovski affirmed Rumble's commitment to freedom and creative independence, expressing delight at working with ADF to safeguard lawful online expression.
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While Newsom and other California legislators claimed to be combating election-related deepfakes, the ADF pointed out that the bills were introduced around the same time Newsom expressed outrage over a parody video of Kamala Harris, who was then launching her presidential campaign as the Democratic Party nominee. Newsom was incensed by the video and vowed to sign a bill to outlaw such content. The creator of the parody video also sued California over the ban.
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Newsom's rhetoric and actions align with the Biden-Harris administration's dismissal of videos depicting President Joe Biden in a state of cognitive decline as mere “cheap fakes.”
At the heart of Rumble’s lawsuit is the constitutional right to free speech and the freedom to post that speech online, regardless of who it may offend, as per the ADF. The lawsuit asserts that California is effectively forcing Rumble to modify its content and political stance by eliminating speech the state disapproves of. The lawsuit further alleges that Rumble is being pressured to remove or label content based on the political views of state bureaucrats overseeing the censorship office or content that these censors deem “reasonably likely to harm the reputation or electoral prospects” of candidates or “reasonably likely to falsely undermine confidence” in an election.
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Sechler explained, “Rumble is one of the few online voices stepping up against this trend of censorship while other platforms and sites cave to totalitarian regimes censoring Americans.” He added, “Rumble is standing for free speech even when it is hard. Other online platforms and media companies must see these laws for what they are — a threat to their existence.”
