Florida Governor Ron DeSantis joins Rumble

Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski announced Monday that Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has joined Rumble, a video sharing alternative after Youtube censored his channel that featured a round table discussion with leading scientist about COVID-19.

DeSantis posted a round table discussion on his Youtube channel that featured a handful of Ivy League educated scientists including Dr. Scott Atlas, a former advisor to President Trump. Youtube removed the video after it said the video violated it COVID-19 misinformation policy.    

DeSantis has been a vocal critic of Big Tech censorship and has sought to push back against what he calls, "an industry of monopoly communications platforms that monitor, influence and control the flow of information in our country and among our citizens."

DeSantis’ Rumble page only has one video so far which is a 45-second clip of DeSantis challenging media and social media outlets. DeSantis says in the clip, "I think what we’re really witnessing is Orwellian, it’s a Big Tech / corporate media collusion and the end result is that the narrative is always right."

DeSantis has recently proposed a bill that would alleviate some of the concerns of censorship by including an opt-out option for content filters and the prohibition of the banning of political candidates according to Breitbart. DeSantis has previously supported other alternative social media platforms like Parler by his presence there.

DeSantis said in his announcement of the bill, "These platforms have changed from neutral platforms that provided Americans with the freedom to speak to enforcers of preferred narratives. Consequently, these platforms have played an increasingly decisive role in elections, and have negatively impacted Americans who dissent from orthodoxies favoured by the Big Tech cartel."

DeSantis has also been the target of mainstream media including 60 Minutes when the outlet  deceptively edited DeSantis' statements at a press conference in an attempt to implicate him in a scandal relating to vaccine distribution. The fallout from this has resulted in DeSantis being included as a front runner for the 2024 Republican Nomination.

DeSantis has been the target of the mainstream media because of Florida’s approach to combating the Coronavirus which notably exclude widespread lockdowns and business closures that are common in other states. This is despite Florida's low COVID-19 case count that seems to strike against the lockdown narrative.