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Tech Groups Step Away From Gab Network After Shooting (ft.com)

Tech companies including PayPal and Stripe have suspended their services from Gab, a social network catering primarily to US conservatives that had been used by the man accused of killing 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue. From a report: The moves are likely to reopen the debate about the limits of free speech online and the potential for social networks to radicalise users. Gab was launched two years ago by tech entrepreneur Andrew Torba, who became frustrated with what he perceived as a bias against conservative views on California-based social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. His site soon attracted controversial rightwing figures, including Richard Spencer and Alex Jones, who had been suspended or banned from other social networks. Robert Bowers, who has been charged over the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday, was among Gab's hundreds of thousands of users, the company confirmed on Saturday. Mr Bowers, whose profile on Gab featured images of guns and white supremacist iconography, made anti-Semitic posts and threats on the site just hours before the shooting. Since Saturday's shooting, Gab has been accused of not doing enough to prevent free expression from tipping over into hate speech on its site.

Online payments companies PayPal and Stripe, as well as hosting provider Joyent, all said they would stop Gab from using their services, [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled, alternative source] citing violations of their terms of services, which do not allow hate speech. Gab slammed the moves as "direct collusion between big tech giants" against it. This weekend is not the first time that Gab has been sharply criticised for the content it hosts.Last year, after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Google removed Gab from Google Play, its mobile app store, claiming it violated its policy on hate speech.

8 of 631 comments (clear)

  1. You forgot one thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    From: https://medium.com/@getongab/gab-com-statement-on-the-tree-of-life-synagogue-shooting-a6c1de715b39

    "Gab unequivocally disavows and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence. This has always been our policy."

    They have had this policy for a while: https://medium.com/@getongab/gab-disavows-all-political-violence-cc4031b4899d

  2. Re: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/free_speech.png by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2, Informative

    Operation Chokepoint and it's constant expansion for instance.

    You might have a point if not for the fact that Operation Choke Point was ended in August 2017 and had absolutely nothing to do with any kind of speech and everything to do with fraud.

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    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  3. Re:They should stay away from Slashdot too, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    They should stay away from the internet, telephones and outside too, since those were all used by the man accused of killing 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

    Seriously, what an idiotic act of attempted virtue signalling to stop using a service because a bad person used it. "A bad person liked that thing so I HAVE TO hate it." It's like they're children or retarded or something.

  4. Re:In before someone says it by king+neckbeard · · Score: 4, Informative

    The problem is that Gab is filling a niche that Twitter has forced open through bans, and disproportionately just that niche. Throw in the existing persecution complex of those groups and you've got a recipe for trouble, because you've created an even stronger echo chamber for the worst elements.

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    This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  5. Re:In before someone says it by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Informative

    When liberals hate conservatives, it is because they do not understand what conservatives believe, nor do they care to learn. When faced with questions such as "One of the worst things a person could do is hurt a defenseless animal" or "Justice is the most important requirement for a society," liberals assumed that conservatives would disagree.

    Jonathan Haidt's experiments ask liberals and conservatives to fill out questionnaires about their values, then to predict how someone from the opposite tribe would fill out the questionnaire. He finds that conservatives are able to predict liberals' answers just fine and seem to have a pretty good understanding of their worldviews, but that liberals have *no idea* how conservatives think or what they value.

    One of the most telling discoveries was that conservatives tend to be curious about what liberals think and why, while liberals see conservatives as inferior "other," inherently incapable of thought. The slur as substitute for argument is glaring on this website.

    One only needs to utter the name "Sarah Palin" to see how interested liberals are in women's rights, or "Clarence Thomas" to see how interested they are in racial equality.

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    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  6. Re:Goal post moving much? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Informative

    he was an active member of a community that in turn actively encourages folks like him to come to their side. You know this. You're trying to shift the narrative. I don't think anyone's gonna fall for it though. At least not anyone who doesn't _want_ to fall for it. Flag as Inappropriate

    This is disengenuous AF. They actively encourage everybody to join their service. Is there something wrong with your brain?

    You (and OP) make it sound like Gab is a "conservative" forum. It isn't. It's about free speech for everybody, not just a few.

  7. Re:blame social media by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Informative

    OK, let me use small words. He joined that group because he was crazy; the group did not make him crazy.

    So, you believe the near-doubling of antisemitic violence since Trump was elected is just some weird coincidence?

    https://www.theguardian.com/so...

    And is a near-doubling of white supremacist propaganda since Trump was elected also just some weird coincidence.

    https://www.adl.org/news/press...

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
  8. Re:False dichotomies are bad for you, mmkay? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Conservatives haven't been systematically deplatformed by Twitter, though. Twitter regularly allows conservatives to stay on their platform even when they're in obvious breach of Twitter's stated rules in ways that would get non-conservatives banned. Twitter's moderation is massively biased in favor of conservatives, which anyone who uses Twitter knows. Hell, they let Paul Nehlen stay on Twitter for over six months after having explicitly called for violence against specifically named Jewish politicians. A huge number of right wing "intellectual" figures like Jack Posobiec still have accounts despite repeated and flagrant violations of Twitter's posted rules. Meanwhile, people on the left are frequently banned simply for repeating threats that right wingers have made against them and asking why those threats are allowed to exist on the platform.

    And Gab doesn't support free speech, certainly not more than Twitter does. Gab censors things from their platform all the time. It seems like your arguments don't take the facts of the situation into account at all.