Rumble filed a federal defamation lawsuit against Check My Ads after the so-called disinformation "watchdog" made reportedly false claims about the video platform.
The video platform announced the suit in a press release Wednesday. Check My Ads is a left-wing bully organization that pressures advertisers to defund websites that supposedly allow so-called “disinformation.” Rumble, however, has had enough of this brand safety policing and is now suing the watchdog’s co-founders, Nandini Jammi and Claire Atkin. “Defamation is not free speech,” said Rumble Chairman and CEO Chris Pavlovski according to the press release. “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.”
Rumble specifically accused Check My Ads of making defamatory allegations regarding the pro-free speech video platform’s funding. “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,” Rumble reportedly stated in the lawsuit complaint.
The suit noted that this claim is “particularly damaging” to the company from a speech perspective. “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,” Rumble alleged in its complaint according to the press release.
The complaint reportedly also said that Check My Ads not only made the claims but “knew their claim about Rumble’s reliance on Google Ad revenue for survival was false, and the defendants refused to correct their statements when Rumble demanded a retraction.”
The hypocrisy is not lost on Pavlovski who pointed out the ridiculousness of the disinformation police spreading reportedly false information. “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,” he said. “For those of us who value free expression and the free exchange of ideas, it is important to stand up to bullies—and people who lie and use intimidation tactics are most assuredly bullies, just as they are enemies of free speech.”
Check My Ads is far from the only organization using this sinister tactic to defund alternative pro-free speech media. For example, news reliability rating firm NewsGuard works with ad agencies “to help keep their advertisers off of misinformation and to put their ads onto legitimate news sites,” according to NewsGuard co-CEO Steve Brill. Yet, MRC Free Speech America has repeatedly found that the organization has a flawed rating system with a leftist bias. The ideological split is painfully obvious when looking at The Federalist or Newsmax which received a 12.5/100 and 15/100 respectively. Meanwhile, USA Today which openly admitted to publishing 23 fabricated stories continues to have a 100/100 rating from NewsGuard.
MRC Free Speech America also uncovered the wild biases of Ad Fontes, another media ratings firm that works with advertisers.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand government agencies and Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
