Video streaming platform Rumble has filed a federal defamation lawsuit against two co-founders of a media watchdog group.
Rumble's lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, is against Nandini Jammi and Claire Atkin, co-founders of Check My Ads. Ten John Does who reportedly assisted Check My Ads in preparing and publishing defamatory information are also listed in the lawsuit.
The video streaming service is represented by United States defamation and First Amendment litigator Clare Lock LLP law firm.
“As an unapologetically free-speech platform, Rumble’s mission is to provide all content creators and users a place to speak, listen, and debate freely, regardless of their political perspective. When anti-free speech zealots, whose self-declared mission is to shut Rumble down, lie to inflict intentional economic harm on our company, we have no choice but to hold them accountable,” said Rumble Chairman and CEO Chris Pavlovski. “Defamation is not free speech. We have filed this lawsuit because we have a responsibility to our shareholders, creators, users, and advertisers to act, and not sit idly by, when someone attacks our company’s reputation solely to silence differing political views. Our mission requires it.”
“Defendants have repeatedly peddled the false narrative that Rumble is primarily monetized by and wholly dependent upon revenue from Google Ads, when in reality, Google Ads now represents less than 1% of the Company’s revenue,” the suit states. “This narrative is particularly damaging to Rumble. The notion that Rumble is heavily dependent on ad revenue from Google is wholly inconsistent with Rumble’s publicly stated mission to be free from the political and economic pressures of Big Tech. And it is equally damaging to Rumble because it falsely attributes a material and existential financial risk to the Company that Defendants’ stated mission to eliminate Rumble’s Google Ad revenue will cause Rumble’s financial collapse.”
According to the suit, Jammi has a record of launching pressure campaigns against advertisers on other outlets which have included Fox News and Breitbart.
Jammi and Atkin have accused Rumble of lying to their shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about the platform's financial health and revenue sources.
Rumble's lawsuit follows social media platform X's recent lawsuit against Media Matters which alleges the liberal watchdog group manipulated information on the website to drive advertisers away from the platform.
“The irony is that the defendants piously claim to be in the business of protecting all of us from disinformation, but they are the ones lying to the public,” Pavlovski said. “This lawsuit opens up another front in the ongoing war against censorship, much like X’s recently filed suit against Media Matters—another entity that tries to shut down dissent online—and Truth Social’s lawsuit against 20 media outlets."
Pavlovski stressed the importance of standing up to "bullies" and "people who lie and use intimidation tactics" for "those who value free expression and free exchange of ideas."
"They are enemies of free speech," he concluded.
