I think these articles are related. I hadn’t heard of gab until now either, but after the synagogue shooting these articles brought attention to the fact that gab was one of the social media sites that the shooter frequented.
We're talking about more than just saying things here.
11 people have been murdered by a white supremacist, and Gab is the online community for white supremacists / neonazis / anti-semites, one of whom is the murderer, whose actions have been heavily influenced by the specific culture of that community. What does the white-people stuff you allegedly saw "on twitter" have to do with that?
Remember when a guy murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue? When it was revealed the shooter had posted about it on Gab beforehand, every service powering the social network pulled the plug. Epik was who brought them back online.[0]
The hero of hate speech is not exactly a sterling reputation to have.
gab.com was founded as a safe space for the alt-right, going so far as to choose a frog as their mascot (a reference to "Pepe"). gab.com just got a heavy dose of bad publicity from the fact that the terrorist who murdered 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh spent a great deal of time on gab.
A "free speech social network" used by white supremacists, neo-nazis and other extremists who have been banned elsewhere from social media (among others - I know people will be triggered if I don't explicitly disambiguate that not all Gab users are extremists and racists) and recently by the suspected Pittsburgh synagogue shooter.
Gab got business relationships terminated because a mass murderer became radicalized via interactions with Gab users (and people had the receipts). This was after a pattern of buildup of political rhetoric culminating in violence on their site that had repeated for years.
> Gab suspended the account belonging to Robert Gregory Bowers, the man charged with killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue last month, shortly after the attack. The site said it backed up all user data for that account and notified the FBI.
Gab may have a large number of alt-right conspiracy nuts, but they also have a lot of users who rightfully mock those nutty people. It really is a platform for pure free speech. Unfortunately, its polarization was inevitable as Twitter and Reddit started cracking down on far-right users, leaving only pure free speech websites left for the crazies. But suggesting the website itself condones violence or sympathizes with neo-Nazis isn't accurate.
Per tptacek's comments, the founder does appear to be an asshole, but that doesn't make him a neo-Nazi.
Gab is an English-language social media website known for its far-right userbase.[8] The site has been widely described as a "safe haven"[9] for extremists including neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the alt-right.[10]
Gab claims to stand for free speech and individual liberty,[a][25][26] though these claims have been criticized for being a shield of the alt-right ecosystem.[19][22] Antisemitism is a prominent part of the site's content,[28] and the platform itself has engaged in antisemitic commentary.[23][29] Researchers have written that Gab is "known to be hateful".[30]
> Gab is an English-language social media platform known for its far-right userbase.[8] The site has been widely described as a "safe haven"[9] for extremists including neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the alt-right.[10]
From Wikipedia.
OP isn’t putting any words in anyone’s mouth. They are referencing a well known fact about this establishment.
You can easily find antisemitic tripe in Gab's official account. It's a site run by bigots for bigots that likes to pretend it's some neutral, principled free speech crusader. It's thoroughly, painfully obvious to any reasonable person that it's not - it's just a generic online septic tank.
It's a good question, but for the record, I'm fine with the line being somewhere before Parler, which is full of people plotting political assassinations.
This happened to Gab.ai, too, but it happened after one of those plotters committed a mass murder, one he advertised on Gab, at the Tree of Life synagogue.
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