Conservative video platform Rumble sues California over election misinformation law
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RUMBLE SUES CALIFORNIA OVER ELECTION MISINFORMATION LAW
Once again, the Alliance Defending Freedom is suing California and, once again, it is over the recently passed law AB 2655.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law in September, and in October, the ADF announced it was suing California on behalf of conservative humor site the Babylon Bee, alleging that the law — which requires online platforms to block “materially deceptive content related to elections in California” — violates the First Amendment.
This time, the plaintiff is conservative social media video platforms Rumble and Rumble Canada, but the complaint is largely the same. The ADF alleges that AB 2655 forces sites like Rumble to “act as the government’s censorship police” in removing election-related mis- and disinformation from their platform.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. A copy of the complaint can be read here.
“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. 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,” said ADF Senior Counsel Phil Sechler in a statement.
Rumble was founded in 2013, and is heavily patronized by prominent conservatives. Conservative venture capitalists Peter Thiel, Vivek Ramaswamy and JD Vance have invested in the platform, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Newsom’s office has defended AB 2655, saying in a statement last October that “these new laws are no more stringent than those already passed across the country, including in deep red states like Alabama.”
POLL SHOWS HARRIS, NEWSOM LEADING 2028 DEMOCRATIC FIELD, SO FAR
Via David Lightman...
Two Californians — Vice President Kamala Harris and Newsom — top the list of possible 2028 Democratic contenders in a new Emerson College poll.
Harris, who just lost this year’s presidential election to Donald Trump, was the choice of 37% of registered voters. Newsom was second at 7%.
Others in the potential field: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (4%), Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (3%), Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (3%), former First Lady Michelle Obama (2%) and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt. (2%). Thirty-five percent were undecided.
Newsom has been an active campaigner around the country this year for Harris and President Joe Biden. He’s set up a fundraising mechanism typical of aspiring presidential candidates, though he has not said he’s interested in the job.
Harris is still mulling her future. The Bee reported last week that some supporters are urging her to run for governor of California in 2026. Newsom has served two terms and can’t run for a third that year.
Among Republicans, Vice President-elect Vance topped the list of potential nominees at 37%. No one else came close, though 51% were undecided. Trump cannot seek another term.
Presidential polls taken this soon in the cycle tend to rely largely on name recognition and are predictive of what’s to come in a race with no incumbent. The Emerson poll was taken Nov. 20 to 22.
In March, 2013, for instance, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., topped the list of possible 2016 Republican candidates in a nationwide Quinnipiac University poll. He wound up losing to Trump, and is now the president-elect’s nominee to become Secretary of State. In that 2013 poll, Trump was not even mentioned.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If he wanted a safe space, he came to the wrong place.”
- Media columnist Oliver Darcy, discussing his combative interview with billionaire Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong regarding Soon-Shiong’s decision to add pro-Trump voice Scott Jennings to the paper’s editorial board, via the New York Post.
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