Rumble is suing California for allegedly forcing the social media platform to alter its own speech and censor its users&#8217; speech, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Daily Wire.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division. Rumble is challenging California&#8217;s latest laws punishing speakers for certain political commentary, which California Governor Gavin Newsom has <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/09/17/governor-newsom-signs-bills-to-combat-deepfake-election-content/">framed</a> as measures that will combat the &#8220;harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content.&#8221;
California&#8217;s <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2655">AB 2655,</a> the &#8220;Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,&#8221; &#8220;deputizes&#8221; Rumble to restrict its user&#8217;s speech, ADF said in a release, while <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2839">AB 2839,</a> &#8220;Protecting Democracy Against Election Disinformation and Deepfakes,&#8221; uses vague standards to punish individuals posting political content about elections.
“California’s war against political speech is censorship, plain and simple,&#8221; ADF Senior Counsel Phil Sechler told The Daily Wire. &#8220;We can’t trust the government to decide what is true in our online political debates.&#8221;
“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,” added Chris Pavlovski, Chairman and CEO of Rumble. “Rumble will always celebrate freedom and support creative independence, so we’re delighted to work with ADF to help protect lawful online expression.”
Though Newsom and California lawmakers framed the recent bills as measures to address election-related deepfakes, ADF points out that the bills came in response to Newsom&#8217;s criticism of a parody video of then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, in which Harris is depicted mocking herself and the Democratic Party.
&#8220;Manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal,&#8221; Newsom said of the video, vowing that he&#8217;d  &#8220;be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is.&#8221;
His actions <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-complains-of-biden-cheap-fakes">also followed claims</a> from the White House in June that legitimate videos depicting President Joe Biden looking frail and confused were &#8220;cheap fakes.&#8221;
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This is amazing 😂 
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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1816974609637417112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
Rumble is suing the state to defend the constitutionally protected right to freely post political content online, according to ADF. The website&#8217;s lawsuit argues that California is requiring Rumble not only to restrict its users&#8217; speech, but also to alter its own content and viewpoint to promote messages that Rumble does not agree with, and to remove and label content according to the whims of state officials.
 That includes content that California officials consider “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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“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,&#8221; Sechler explained. &#8220;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.”
In September, ADF <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-babylon-bee-sues-california-over-unprecedented-crackdown-on-satire-parody">represented the Babylon Bee</a> when the Christian satire website sued California on similar grounds. Less than a month later, after a federal district court found AB 2839 may violate the First Amendment, California officials backed down, admitting that they could not enforce their laws censoring political satire and parody against The Babylon Bee.
“Our job is hard enough when our jokes keep coming true, as if they were prophecies,” Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon said at the time. “But it becomes significantly more difficult when self-serving politicians abuse their power to try to control public discourse and clamp down on comedy.&#8221;
&#8220;Unfortunately for them,&#8221; he added, &#8220;the First Amendment secures our right to tell jokes they don’t like.”
<a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/Rumble_v._Bonta_-_as_filed.pdf">Read the filing here.</a>

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EXCLUSIVE: Rumble Sues California For ‘Censorship’ Over Laws Restricting User Speech

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EXCLUSIVE: Rumble Sues California For ‘Censorship’ Over Laws Restricting User Speech