After a demand by the French Government to remove some Russian news sources from its platform, the Toronto-based video hosting service Rumble has announced that users in France will no longer be able to access the site.
Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of Rumble which touts itself as pro-freedom of speech, stressed in its announcement that it is committed not to move the “goalposts” on its policy of platforming users with unpopular views.
Pavlovski’s post with the news was shared in a reply to Elon Musk’s tweet in which Tesla’s CEO reported that some governments pressured him to ban Russian news sources on his Starlink satellite broadband service, but he resisted them.
Noting the service won’t change stand for any foreign government, Pavlovski’s statement on Tuesday said that although the video hosting service has challenged the legality of the French order, access to it in France will be completely disabled for now.
Expressing hope that the government in Paris will reconsider its demand and allow Rumble to operate in France again, Rumble added that since less than 1% of its user base was viewing videos from France, the latest decision will not impact the company materially.
Commenting on the development, journalist Glenn Greenwald contrasted Rumble’s reaction to French demands to the close cooperation between the US government and other American tech companies, pointing out that Rumble, thankfully, ‘told France to f**k itself.’
Last week’s report in The Intercept, a news outlet that Greenwald co-founded, revealed that major US-based Big Tech firms have been working hand-in-glove with US federal agencies to suppress what Washington deems to be “misinformation.”
Like all other EU nations, France banned Russian government-funded news outlets after Moscow invaded Ukraine, and to enforce the ban, major platforms like Facebook and Twitter are blocking EU citizens from accessing content from these sources.
Be the first to comment