NEW: Ofcom threatens American company ‘Rumble’ with censorship:

a letter from Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, to Rumble, a Canadian video platform, dated May 21, 2025, threatening censorship under the Online Safety Act 2023, which imposes strict content duties on companies with UK users, surprising given Rumble’s prior resistance to similar pressures in France over Russian media accounts.

Historical context reveals Rumble’s growth from a niche platform in 2013 to 31.9 million monthly visitors by 2021, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, and its 2022 public listing, contrasting with its current standoff with Ofcom, which can impose criminal liability on executives for non-compliance, a power backed by the Act’s enforcement mechanisms.

No peer-reviewed studies directly address this case, but the Act’s framework aligns with a 2021 UK government impact assessment estimating 80% compliance among tech firms, suggesting a trend of regulatory overreach, as critics like Russell Brand have labeled it, challenging the narrative of child safety as a pretext for broader surveillance.