Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes tried to leverage censorship to control Americans even after the U.S. announced looming tariffs on the country.
Rumble and Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media and Technology Group Corp., petitioned a Florida District court on Monday in response to Moraes’s most recent order requiring Rumble to censor a U.S. citizen. The new censorship order came the day after Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazil in part for its efforts targeting free speech.
MRC VP for Free Speech America Dan Schneider slammed Moraes and the burgeoning censorship regime the Supreme Court justice is creating. “Moraes is a Trotskyite who has been ruling Brazil with an iron fist, using the army to enforce his leftist agenda,” said Schneider. “He's now turning his gun sights on Americans. This is how the radical left operates. They first strip people of their rights, and then they punish without mercy anyone who dares to try to exercise their rights.”
In its petition, Rumble argued that Moraes’s July 11 judicial order “was not served through any lawful treaty mechanism and appears to have been issued without notice to the U.S. government. It demands that Rumble block a user account, preserve its contents, and disclose associated user data to Justice Moraes, under threat of daily fines of R$100,000 (approximately US $20,000) beginning Sunday night, on July 13, 2025.”
Rumble and Truth Social won a previous case against the Brazilian justice in the same Florida court back in February. The companies are once again asking for judicial relief.
This most recent case is far from the first time Moreas has tried to use social media to go after Brazilian exiles. Moraes targeted Brazilian journalist and political commentator Paulo Figueiredo and his social media accounts in 2022, according to Figueiredo’s U.S. congressional testimony in May 2024.
During his testimony, Figueiredo asked for international sanctions and praised X owner Elon Musk for pushing back on De Moraes’s demands.
The United States has since imposed tariffs on Brazil, partly because of “insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans.”
Just days before the Trump administration instituted the tariffs, Figueiredo expressed the need to take action in an interview with political commentator and former congressman Matt Gaetz. “Moraes deserves those sanctions,” Figueiredo told Gaetz, before mocking the justice, “...the one who is actually ruling the country is, believe it or not, a Supreme Court justice [Moraes]. That guy that looks like a James Bond villain… took down X, took down Rumble from Brazil.”
While Rumble was allowed back, the company continues to battle with the Brazilian Supreme Court over censorship demands.
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