Brazilian censorship targets remain on Rumble and Telegram as US Big Tech complies with censorship demands

The Rumble channel of Brazilian podcaster Monark is still available despite the censorship demands of the controversial judge Alexandre de Moraes of the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

The censorship demand was made after the events of January 8th, when supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in the capital Brasilia. Big Tech platforms such as YouTube and Facebook complied.

Read background information about the censorship orders here.

Monark has been broadcasting live on his Rumble channel several times per week. Rumble is a US-based company.

In one of these recent broadcasts, he criticized Moraes, as he has done many times before. “The State said that it is illegal for me to exist,” he said during the chat with businessman Ícaro de Carvalho.

Monark still has yet to be told the reason he’s supposed to be censored or what “speech crime” he has allegedly committed. “How will I know? You don’t know which judge, which lawyer, which prosecutor, you don’t know for which crime you are being accused, in which forum you will file a petition,” he said in a recent livestream.

“Within a dictatorship, which is what we live in today, the power of the bureaucrats, who are at the top of the dictatorship hierarchy, is unlimited. They can do whatever they want.”

Telegram has also refused to block the account of elected federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira with over 300,000 followers on the app.

In a letter sent to de Moraes, Telegram asked the judge to reconsider the censorship order.

Telegram says that such censorship orders are demanded in a “disproportionate” way.

Telegram accused the judge of censorship, saying that the order “prevents a space for free communication for legitimate speech, implying censorship and curbing the right of Brazilian citizens to freedom of expression.”

Telegram said that “no grounds” for the censorship were presented.

Telegram is currently being fined 100,000 Brazilian reais (almost $20,000) per day of noncompliance, according to a press release from the country’s Supreme Court.

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